It’s been a year since I graduated from high school. Thinking back over the last year, the summer after my senior year and my freshman year of college, I have grown in every way possible. It has been an amazing time of self-discovery and finding what I’m passionate about. However, as much as it has been a personal journey, there are a few people that have stayed constant throughout it.
When my friends and I graduated high school and left the familiarity of each other and our hometown, it was extremely bittersweet. Although there were a few moments I wanted to live in forever, like country music on the lake house deck as the sun was setting or talking in someone’s kitchen until 3 a.m., I was so proud of all of you and so excited to see where your individual journeys were going. All of you made leaving home so hard to do, but I did it with confidence knowing that I had friends to call whenever I needed.
As our freshman year went on, our friend group turned into a long-distance family that spanned from Florida, through South and North Carolina, and up to West Virginia. We navigated our way through many firsts and spent the changing seasons with a new group of people. Some of us found these people through Greek life and others through sports teams. I can’t tell you how happy it made me to see you all surrounded by people who loved you like I do and made you feel at home in your new environments.
Some nights were spent on FaceTime, talking for hours about our new home or how we missed our old one, and some nights we stayed up until 2 a.m. blowing up the group message with our plans for the next we were going to see each other. Ah yes, the famous group message where absolutely no topic is off-limits. Some of my favorite weekends were spent in the car going to visit each other across state lines and every trip consisting of I’m-so-happy-to-see-you hugs and celebratory dancing on tables.
Christmas break arrived sooner than we thought and with that, half of our freshman year was over. The month spent back home was a reminiscent one. I remember sitting around the fire in the backyard and telling stories upon stories about our freshman year thus far. It was a taste of home that we all needed after spending a semester away. I saw firsthand in every one of you how much you had grown since college began. We talked about classes, majors, and plans for the future and then it hit me-- there was no more high school, no more football games, no more living ten minutes away from each other. We had all begun a separate journey that was leading us in different, but successful, directions.
With all of this recognition, there was not a part of me that felt sad. As our freshman years come to a close and our plans for summer are differing, I want you all to know how proud I am to be your friend and how thankful I am to have had you from a distance this past year. The next three years of school are going to be even better than the last and brings a smile to my face to think that we’re all having the time of our lives. I look back on our time with joy and can’t wait to see what the future brings for all of you.
