High school was a time where, if you’re lucky, you make some lifelong friends. These people were with you through it all - the good and the bad. Not everyone keeps these friends after they graduate from high school and move on to bigger and better things. However, if you do keep them for all the right reasons, then you’re lucky.

My best friends have been with me through everything. They have experienced heartbreak after heartbreak with me and were always there to help pick up the pieces. They were always there to support me, whether it was in one of my sports or even just wishing me luck and reassuring me about a midterm I was worrying about. They were around for the awkward years where we all had braces and still looked like middle-schoolers – and if friends can stick with you through that, they can stick with you through anything.

I don’t always get to see my high school friends anymore, but not a single day goes by without us talking. Our group chat is always going. Because we don’t always get to see each other, we have a constant stream of messages going back and forth so we’re in communication almost all the time. It’s so great to know that you have a handful of people always around to talk, even when they’re not physically around (thanks, technology).

We each have separate lives now, which makes getting together so much more fun because you get to tell each other stories about your lives. While it was fun and easy to experience everything together, being apart is great because they’re your anchors. When you’re telling them all of the crazy details about your new life, they keep you grounded by listening to you and supporting you, but also giving you their advice and opinions in order to look out for you.

Reunions are the greatest things, like, ever. We always get dinner at the same restaurants and order the same food every time – it’s tradition for us. We look forward to nights out that we get to spend together, just so we can spend hours talking (and eating). There’s no better way to end a stressful semester than getting together with the people who lived some of the best (or worst) years of your life with you.

We have a million inside jokes that are years old that we still remember and laugh about to this day. We know all of each other’s secrets and all of each other’s embarrassing stories. I’m never afraid to be myself around them and I know they’re certainly not afraid to be themselves around me. We sometimes get nostalgic and reminisce but we always take advantage of the time that we’re able to spend together when we’re all able to meet up.

I’ve always been the kind of person, when it comes to friends, to take quality over quantity – I’d rather have four quarters than a hundred pennies. The few friends I’ve kept since graduating have been my biggest cheerleaders, my personal therapists, and my favorite people on earth. I love you guys to the moon and back.