One thing about going away for college means leaving your friends behind. Some of these friends you’ve had for a lifetime or maybe just a few years. Either way, it’s hard to leave them. You share a special bond, they’ve been through your awkward stages with you, helped you find your homecoming dress, were there when you got into your first little car accident, got into trouble together, and called their family your family. Face it: you two were inseparable, combined at the hip, a pair of bookends, so to speak. Leaving them wasn’t easy, but it got better and easier, and every reunion is better and better.
Having my best friend so far away has been a blessing in disguise. Often we would find ourselves mirroring each other, but being halfway across the country from each other has allowed us to develop into who we are individually, but we still have the other's voice and expectations of who we were and who we are capable of being.
Credit: mummytofive.com
It couldn’t be any more true. When you were in high school,l there really was no distance like the one college brings. You went to school five out of the seven days of the week and probably had after-school activities together, and on the weekends, let’s be real, you practically lived at one of your houses. But now you can’t do that. You’re lucky if between all the craziness that comes with college you can manage a conversation via text once a week. But every time you get to see each other, nothing has changed between the two of you. Yeah, you have changed, but no matter what they are your best friend and your relationship won’t change. The distance just makes you love, appreciate and miss each other even more.
Yeah, the distance is tough, but one of the biggest perks is that you now have an excuse to go visit a place you may have never been able to or thought to visit like Seattle, Washington, Boise, Idaho, Los Angeles, California, or Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. You can get a little sneak peek into their college life and the new place they call home, and when they visit you, you get the opportunity to show them around the city you now call home. Best friends are your best friend for a reason and no amount of distance could ever change the relationship that you hold as dear to your heart as the one between you and your best friend.
When you get to finally visit your best friend at their university, be ready for hugs, cuddles, and the phrase "this is my best friend from home." Every penny and time spent to make the trip happen is worth it. You get the chance to truly live their life, understand the changes they've made, all the stories and people they tell you about finally match up and it's a whole new experience all in its own. For me, I got to experience a Greek row and a school with 10 times the amount of people that my school has. But I also got the opportunity to meet all of her new best friends, which was honestly one of the best parts of the entire trip.
Seeing where your best friend lives and is becoming their own person is an experience unlike any other. I wouldn't have traded anything for the time I got to spend with her and the chance to experience what her college life is like. Just prepare yourself though; the goodbye might be a little rougher than you thought, but the experience adds just another bond that can make your friendship stronger than before, as if it weren't already strong enough.
