Everyone has heard the saying that goes, “The friends you make in college are the friends you make for life.” I for one never really bought into that. I thought that the friends I made in high school were the friends I made for life and that nothing could ever change our bond. Upperclassmen already understand the fact that once you graduate high school, and all of the graduates disperse out into their choice universities, even the strongest of friendships start to fade away. Some of those initial friendships will last a lifetime, but a realization many under class-men don’t get, is that it is okay to make new friends and move on from the old ones.
It’s perfectly normal to outgrow people. We don’t go to university to stay the same. We go to university to grow, and change, and explore all of the possibilities to become the adults and professionals we want to become. Becoming something is one of the most complex and challenging evolutions young adults go through in college, and we have to accept that the more we become who we are going to be, the less we have in common with the people who surround us. That doesn’t go to say that an English major can’t be best friends with a PT major, but this means that the things we used to think were funny or fun, are often things that we out-grow.
Human growth is like a seed. We all start out looking the same, and we could even be separated into subcategories that group us with different people. High school is the process where we are planted, and college is when we finally sprout. If I was an Oak seed, and my friend was a strawberry seed, the two of us will grow to be very different despite starting in the same gardener’s hand. If you aren’t one for metaphorical comparisons, then that won’t tickle your fancy, but the intention is still there. Regardless, it is a fact of life that we have to embrace. Sometimes people who used to be good for us, begin to tie us down and limit our capabilities.
The friends that I’ve made in college are irreplaceable. They are the people who I can rely on to be here for me through thick and thin, they are the people I’ve confided in, they are the people that I really can trust will be there for me for the rest of my life. The thing is, that high school is a petty place, a place where you just try to fit in and be accepted. College is the place you go to be yourself. The people I’ve met here know me for who I am, and like me for what I am. That’s the real reason why your college friendships are more likely to outlive your high school friendships.
Just the other day, I was sitting with one of my friends, eating lunch. We were having an amazing conversation about Literature. This may seem trivial to some, but I mean we were really having a conversation; pulling from our memory banks, bringing up legitimate claims, and having an in-depth discussion about the periods of literature, and literary styles. Between the laughing, joking, and good conversation, I just found myself thinking, that if I had that conversation with anyone else, they wouldn’t understand or they wouldn’t care. That’s what I mean when I say, “these are the friends that understand me.”
I still have great friendships with co-workers, with people who never went to university, even with people who dropped out. Friendship is its own entity altogether, but the bond we make with our classmates will forever elevate our connections. The fellow students that started out with me, have grown with me every day for four years, both in mental capacity and in maturity, and I am so thankful for them.
