When I was in high school I always thought clichés were just sayings old people used in order to make their point about life, because we all know "with age comes wisdom" and that "great things take time". I felt like it was a waste of my time listening to that nonsense, but as a senior in college, I realized they were right.

Times were tough transitioning from high school to college. I knew a lot of people from my high school who were going to be at Montclair State University, but only three were people I actually talked to. Unlike most college freshman, I was commuting, so transitioning shouldn’t have been that hard should it have? Wrong, it was very hard. I didn’t feel comfortable enough to get involved and acquainted with campus life. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college that I realized what I wanted to do with my time at Montclair State.

First, let me talk a little bit about one of my best friends. We were in the same learning community for our majors. I had a few classes with her, but we didn’t talk much. We had group projects together, here and there, but we weren’t really close. It wasn’t until we weren’t in any classes together when we ran into each other in one of the buildings and realized the next semester we were in another class together.

That next semester our friendship grew, we were both living on campus our sophomore years, we hung out together at least twice a week and I finally felt like I fit in somewhere. Throughout the growth of our friendship she gave me amazing advice where the whole point of my article comes from. From the very beginning, I found this girl hilarious, especially her puns and clichés. Little did I know I would start to live by these sayings.

One of the most meaningful clichés my best friend has taught me is about a staircase. It sounds stupid I know, but let's look at this scenario: You have a friend, who you also trust a lot of things with. It’s a long distance friendship but you manage to make it work. Those late night talks, same taste in music, laughs and then you fall for them. You keep in your feelings because they’re in a relationship and you don’t want to do anything to mess up your friendship. They find out anyway and call you a liar and tell you to lose their number. You’re crushed. You thought you had a strong enough bond with them for this not to happen. But it did.

I cried to my best friend when this happened. I was so lost and confused. I had no idea what I was going to do. But after a long talk with her I was given the advice about friends being a “staircase” it made some sort of sense. It’s taken me a while to accept it, but I write this now because I know it’s a powerful message.

Let me go deeper into what the meaning of this staircase is; you walk up the stairs with this person, it could be one flight or 20. Now you stop at the top of that particular set of steps, but they walk through the door and you’re left by yourself. Yeah it feels lonely and you may have to walk up a few flights on your own but then a new door will open and someone new will come into your life, and that new person will walk with you up another flight or possibly walk with you until you stop. Either way, there are always doors. You don’t have a say in who chooses to continue walking with you, but you sure as hell have a choice in whether you continue walking yourself.

It may sound stupid, and it may sound corny, but remember this the next time a friend, or lover walks out the stairway. And if anything, please, keep on walking.