Your high school best friends can be one closest things to your heart or the one thing you want to get far far away from. In my case, my high school best friends mean more than the world to me. Some people have a good experience with their friends before college which can make going to college and making all new friends one of the most difficult things you have ever done.

I have had the same group of best friends since I was in the fifth grade give or take a few. Almost all of my memories growing up are with the same people which made going to college a difficult task for me. Sometimes I think about how I got so damn lucky to have 12 best friends that I could always count on. From sneaking out of houses to go sledding, to sneaking out for boys, to the drunken nights of senior year. Going to school early every day only to meet at the common tables in the middle and talk about how tired we were. Who would have known that we would miss those early mornings, right? They have been there through the awkward middle school stages where no bras were worn and you couldn't wear leggings because the boys got distracted. They have been there through the stupid seventh grade heartbreaks and the senior year heart breaks that hit like a brick wall. When you all got in trouble you had to make up the same stories so when your moms texted in their group message it looked like we were telling the truth. You know what kind of milk your mom's cousins' daughter buys for her house because you all know each others families like they are your own. I was almost through my second semester of freshman year at college when I wrote this and wishing that someone would have told me that those are the days I would miss.

Leaving these girls for college is easily hands down one of the hardest things I have ever done. I am not much of a crier in those types of situations which all my friends knew. One early morning, a few of us went to say goodbye to our best friend Julia before she headed to Alabama because we simply were not ready the night before. I got out of the car at 7 AM in front of her house and tears came down my face quickly. It was just then hitting me with how hard this was going to be. Around a week later, I said goodbye to my best friend Alana which was easily one of the worst things I have ever done. It was a type of cry that you couldn't breathe because you were crying so hard. The goodbyes did not stop there though, Kaitlyn, Anne, Samantha, Kaylee, Hannah, Kegs, Kara, Kenny, even the girls that were coming to Purdue with me, Burg, Kunk and Bailee. We all had to say goodbye and truthfully I didn't know how many more goodbyes my heart could handle.

Graduation truly seems like years ago, right?

Do not get me wrong, somehow, the good Lord continued to bless me with another fantastic friend group in college. When I first became apart of Theta, my sorority, I knew no one and was not exactly sure how it would go. We had some awkward bid day pictures acting like we all loved each other because we were so excited to go greek which we can now laugh about. As I was almost through my freshman year when writing this, I realized that at the start I continuously compared my friend group here at Purdue to my friend group at home which simply is not fair. It is completely and utterly possible that God has given me two groups of girls to call home.

Although to my high school best friends, everyone may always say that college is where you make your life long friends but I truly believe that high school is where that all happens. When you grow up in a place as special as Fishers, Indiana, special relationships come about. FaceTime is one of my favorite things to ever be invented because I get to see my best friends' beautiful faces even when doing long distance. We all try to do a pretty well job of keeping up with each other's lives and saying our highs and lows of the week every now and then. The distance makes the breaks that much more fun. Seeing your best friends doing college and being independent can be a wonderful thing. Everyone is taking their own path into doing something they love.

By the end of this, I hope you take advantage of the high school days and your comfortable town in which you grew up. God really works in mysterious ways and puts people in lives for a reason. Take advantage of the good times and the bad, as they will both make you out to be the best version of yourself when it is time to start a new chapter of your life and meet your college best friends. It does not have to end at graduation. Keep in touch, love each other from a distance, be intentional. It is completely okay to be sad to go to college and leave your friends. Some people get extra lucky to have best friends in both places.

Thank you to the girls that shaped me to who I am today. I love you all.