Junior year of high school, the time when we were all thinking about the future, with endless possibilities ahead of us. It was the year for college applications to become more relevant than whose house we were going to that Friday night. As we sat at our usual lunch tables with our best friends, we didn't realize that everything was actually about to change. We had our friends that had been through it all with us, from sneaking out at night to gushing over the cute boy in our English class. Carefree and living under our parents roof, we weren't ready to give it up yet. We talked about what we wanted to do when we were older, but in a more serious light than when we wanted to be superheroes and princesses. We gossiped about the different campuses, what colleges we could see ourselves at, not realizing the grave distance that would soon come between us and our close knit lunch table.
Looking back, I remember seeing everyone with their college t-shirts and sweatshirts bragging about the campus of the week for them. It was such a fun time, road tripping to handfuls of states that we never thought we would travel to or even attend a school in. At the time, our heads were full of, “Where am I going to fit in the best?”, “What school has the biggest party scene?”, “Will this college help me excel in the program I want to major in?” etc. These ideas were all so relevant to us, and without knowing it, we were neglecting to realize how drastically our lives were about to change.
As senior year came around, we began to commit to the school we could see ourselves advance at the most and then compared it to that of our fellow classmates. College commit day was such an exciting day where everyone whore a t-shirt from the school they would be attending in the fall. I remember how excited I was for all of my friends and vise-versa. We never really did start to think about the reality of our decisions until the final weeks of summer came around.
As we laid in each others' backyards drinking homemade margaritas and eating strawberries, we began to realize that this would no longer be a privilege of ours. We wouldn't be able to hangout after school anymore, go to the gym to get cute prom ready bodies together, or even drive over at 3 a.m. when a boy broke one of our hearts. What would we do without each other? It became so real and so hard to accept that the faces we saw everyday, our best friends, would no longer be 5 blocks away but 5 hours away.
As I covered my dorm room with handfuls of high school memories, I was reminded that these people were still there for me no matter how far away we were. As time went on, our lifestyles changed and we were no longer in the same little bubble. We didn't hangout with the same group anymore, we didn't eat and shop at the same local places, but we soon realized that none of this mattered. We had so much to tell each other about our new lives, so much to learn. As cheesy as it sounds, distance really does make the heart grow fonder (kinda hate myself for saying that, but it's so true). I cherish the relationships with my high school best friends just as much as I do with my college friends. We took things for granted in high school and now realize how strong our friendship truly was and is.
