There is one thing the movies don't illustrate about senior year, but this is an occurrence everyone needs to be made aware about. Being observant, I first noticed it my freshmen year, and then again sophomore year and junior year, as I watched the seniors before they make their way towards graduation. I watched as some very old friendships drifted apart right before summer and as brand new ones formed. At the end of my junior year, as I watched a close friend of mine go through similar drama and a long-term fight with two of his best friends over seemingly nothing, I began to panic. Could this happen to me?

The start of senior year was fine, everyone in my group was excited to be on the cusp of this new chapter- applying to colleges, basking in senior privileges. It wasn't until after we had all settled into our routines for the year that I noticed the phenomenon happening. A few months into the year, there was a clear divide in friendships. Everyone was still hanging out together and there was no obvious cause or problem. I had just begun to talk to a few people less and less. There were a handful of relationships, one's I had had since elementary school and thought were strong and unchanging, that just didn't feel the same anymore. At the same time as this inevitable drifting apart, I was making new friends, mere weeks before graduation. I was strengthening bonds with an entirely new group, a group of people that I found would be just as difficult to leave at the end of summer as my old friends.

Now, I have no explanation for why this happens, but it seems to be an ongoing trend with seniors everywhere. Perhaps it is the idea of leaving people we have loved like family for years that scares us and causes us to subconsciously distance ourselves from them, to ease the separation in August. Maybe senior year we truly find ourselves and realize we have different priorities and need different things from friendships. Maybe somewhere in our heads we feel that we need to practice making new friends again in preparation for college. I'm not sure, but I do know that friendships are dynamic and ever-changing and that I am grateful for all the people in my life right now, and even some who are not but who helped shape me nonetheless. I look forward to college but I dread leaving my friends and family back home and hope the relationships that are important to me can remain strong, even over the physical distance.