As my senior year at West Chester University is progressing, I have been putting a lot of thought into the friends I’ve made over the past four years and whom I will continue to engage with after graduation next semester. Though West Chester has given me lifelong, amazing friends that I would not have made it through without, I have come to the conclusion that NONE could ever compare to my high school best friends.

Over the past years, after graduating from Lenape High School in NJ, we have all went our separate ways to college or work. It amazes me that we all stayed as close as we did... shout out to group texts, FaceTimes, winter break and countless visits. As cliché and corny as it sounds, real friendship is hard to find these days, but, I can truly say that the real friendships I am lucky enough to still hold with my high school friends are incomparable to any others

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Yes I know, I know they say you ‘meet your best friends in college’ and if, that’s true for you, that’s awesome. But these are the reasons why I realize I definitely met mine in high school:

1. They knew me at my most innocent ages.
2. They remember all of my past immaturities, and accept that I’ve come a long way.
3. They stuck with me through my 6^th grade ‘awkward stage’.
4. They’re a part of my family. When my mom asks how I am, she asks how they are.
5. They were there when we all ‘hated our parents so much for being unfair’.
   
6. They’ll always remember my embarrassing and unrealistic crushes.
7. They will always go to a throwback concert with me to relive boy band Jonas Brothers days.
8. They were there for me for my first heartbreak (and all my other firsts).
9. They know my most embarrassing moments, and won’t let me forget them.
   
10. They know me better than I know myself.
11. They were a phone call away and always there to listen throughout college.
12. They’re always up for a reunion.
13. They are always down for some reminiscing of crazy high school days, even if you’ve told the story to each other 100 times already.
14. They are the only ones who get how funny that aspiring rapper from our hometowns music is.
15. I can 100% be myself with them, cause that’s all they know anyway.
16. I probably have at least five of their things, but it's okay with them.
    
17. We’ve had a fair share of fights and drama.
18. They’ll give me tough love and be honest when I need it most.
19. But, they’ll be a shoulder to cry on every time, rather than saying ‘I told you so'.
20. We’ll always love each other, no matter where life takes us.