When you’re in high school, it’s crazy to wrap your head around the idea that your friends are not necessarily going to be your lifelong friends. How could they not be, right? You are always together. Whether it’s after school practices, doing projects, going to movies, attending sporting events, you just can’t imagine your life without them. As a girl who has attended 4 years of college, received a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, and is working on her second year in “the real world,” I am sorry to break it to the teeny boppers, but your high school friendships are really not as strong as the smell of the cologne your jock boyfriends are wearing.

I’m not saying that every single friendship is going to end in some big blowout right when you walk across the stage at graduation. I’m just saying that eventually, you’ll realize that you were only friends with a majority of people in high school just for the sole fact that you see them everyday. I mean, if you have to go to school everyday, you might as well have friends. Am I right?

Graduating high school and moving on to college is a big deal. You aren’t going to be sitting in your comfort zone next to your best friend in chemistry class, and you are no longer the big bad senior. You are knocked down to the bottom of the totem pole and find yourself frantically running around campus with a map in your hand trying to find your next class. We’ve all been there. You’re also probably pretty lonely, because the aforementioned friends that you JUST KNOW are going to be there forever are all at different colleges making new friends.

Sometimes, however, there are those people that never leave. The friend who may have physically left and is at school miles and miles away, yet is the one you are texting because you just CAN’T find your class and you’re going to be late, and somehow they are going to help you get to where you are supposed to be going. The friend that you send ridiculous memes to while you’re supposed to be taking notes on your professor’s lecture. The one you skype with because it’s the 3rd week of classes and you still haven’t met anyone who will understand how weird you are. The friend you met the summer before freshman year of highschool and is still around almost 10 years later.

If you’re lucky, you have a friend that knows you better than you know yourself. Who can look you in the face and tell you that you are being ridiculous without fear of offending you. A friend who you meet for random coffee because you’ve had a bad day and need to vent. A friend who has no possible line to cross. A friend who spontaneously books vacations with you and drags you through airports to catch your international flights. A friend who always forces you to have JUST ONE MORE shot before you leave to go to the bar even though you both know that’s not a good idea. The one friend who proves that high school friendships can still be a thing in your adult life. Who will be the maid of honor in your wedding, and hopefully keeps her speech on a level that won’t make your future husband divorce you before you even leave your reception. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a friend who shares too many inside jokes to count. If you’re lucky, you have a friend who sticks around no matter what happens.