Moving away from your hometown for college is really scary. I chose to go to a small in state school so I knew a few people from high school, but was never really friends with them outside of class. Luckily, I became friends with two of those people and they changed my life. I knew one of them from a birthday party in eighth grade, and the other one and I hung out once with one of our mutual friends freshman year and then never talked to again up until our freshman year of college.
It was cool that we were from the same place, but since we weren't friends with each other in high school, it wasn't the same old hometown gossip, but we still had something in common. We became the "Three Amigos" within the first couple days of school, we were always together, and if someone knew our names chances are that they didn't know who was who. Come October when we met our fourth at a party and we became the "Fantastic Four."
The three of them became my anchors at school. They always looked out for me, they tried to give me their best advice (even though one of them is really bad at it and usually resorts to making jokes, she still tries). They are the reason that I'm still going to that school instead of moving back home.
Us four have had more awesome adventures than I am able to count. They make me laugh until my stomach hurts and they let me cry on their shoulders until I have ran out of tears to cry. We teach each other more than how to drive a stick shift and how to ride a dirt bike. They have taught me how to be be comfortable with what I can't change and they motivate me to change the things I can. I learned how to give a damn about school, just because I was surrounded by people who did.
The difference between them and my high school friends is that we were able to create something based on more than just what classes we were taking, having a common dislike for a person or what off period we all had. Instead we were able to create a friendship on playing zombies until 5 a.m., spending hours in the desert huddled around a fire built for wood pallets that we found around town and traveling 10 hours to our spring break destination.
After spending a year with these lovely friends, I am able to say that they are my family. They made this new town home for me without even knowing it, and that is more than I could have ever expected from them. So, thanks guys for being some of the most important people to walk into my life. Here's to the nights that turned into mornings, and the friends that turned into family.
