I remember when I first started college: I was out of state and knew nobody, except for the few from my high school that decided to attend as well. It was a whole new beginning for me -- I was constantly surrounded by friends and now, as a young adult, I had to start all over again.
There are many types of friends you make in college: the ones you study with, eat with, play sports with, or even all the above. They say these are the friends that you will have for life. But it seems that these so-called friendships were not all they were hyped up to be. It felt like the friends I had in high school were much closer and tight-knit. Why is that?
College is a whole different beast than high school. You can mess up in high school and still make it out OK, but in college, if you mess up, it is much harder to recover. It’s as if high school was more of a social experience and college is a job. As we grow older and advance into our schooling, we have to learn to be more independent. There is no more hand-holding. This is the real world now.
Because of this, even if you are thousands of miles apart, you should never forget your high school friendships. They are the real OGs -- even when you were going through your blunder years, they stuck around. The bonds you make will last a lifetime. If you were like me and fell off the face of the planet to your high school friends while at college, it is not too late to reconnect. Go ahead and text that one group message you all used to use, slide into their Twitter DMs -- better late than never.
Now, this is not to say that the friendships you make at college are not as strong as the ones you made before. You just need to know where to look. Find some like-minded people, join a club, such as a literary magazine or maybe a philanthropic-type club, join a sorority or fraternity. You gotta start somewhere. Don’t be afraid to go out of your comfort zone. I remember when I joined my first club -- it had nothing to do with my interests. To be honest, I only joined because the people recruiting me to join were very cute (talk about starting somewhere). Now I am still in the club, not for the cute girls, but because I found it fun, and the friendships that I made in the club are the ones that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Friendships are an important aspect of a young adult's life. They will be there to bring you up when you’re down and keep the good times rolling. They help shape us into the people we are today. They will always have your back. Surround yourself with people who want you to succeed. Whether they are the friends you make in college or older friends from high school, don’t forget to let them know that you appreciate them.
