Staying in touch with people from high school is hard. You make new friends in college and forget to talk to your old ones. You say you'll get lunch when you come home but never do it. You make new memories that make the ones you made with high school friends seem lame. This is probably why most people I've met in college tell me they are still friends with two or three of their friends from high school. I, on the other hand, still have a relatively large, very close-knit group of friends from high school.
How have we managed to stay close? I literally couldn't tell you because I suck at keeping in touch and barely talk to any of them when I'm at school. But when we come home, we all know we can pick up right where we left off and nothing will have changed. We see each other almost every day, and it's genuinely amazing having friends to look forward to coming home to. Perhaps the coolest part is that most of us have been friends not only since high school, but also middle school. Maybe this is why our friendships have survived college so far, because we have already managed to stay friends for so many years. Whatever the reason is, I'm extremely grateful that I have them in my life still.
Now, I know what you might be thinking, "This girl is weird -- has she even made new friends in college? You're supposed to move on from your high school friends!" To this I sing that song I learned in Girl Scouts that goes, "Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold." Yeah. Got you there, didn't I? In all seriousness, of course I've made new friends. Having old friends doesn't mean you can't make new ones. That's like not eating pizza today because the one you ate yesterday was too good. Bad logic, man. I've just been #blessed enough to meet fantastic people in both high school and college, people who I want to keep in my life because they bring me joy. You keep things/people in your life that make you happy; that's how it works.
Not to mention, having a friend group makes coming home from the beautiful land of college, an always slightly depressing endeavor, way more bearable. I actually go out over break instead of rotting into my bed watching Netflix (OK, I do that also but I balance it out by being social, let me live). I know I always have people to do fun activities with. I get to swap crazy and funny stories with my friends who all go to different colleges all over the country.
Best of all, I have people who knew me during some of my roughest times in life (ahem, my ego stage) and still love and accept me unconditionally. That is something I wouldn't trade for one million new friends. So thank you to my high school homies for sticking with me -- here's to many more years of friendship.
