The thought of leaving my best friends from home when I left for college killed me. What was I supposed to do being on a different timezone than my best friends? With one of my best friends in Santa Barbara and the other in Boston, the thought of going to school in New Orleans felt like a world away. Even though my two best friends in high school lived an hour away from me at home, I knew I could always get in a car and go see them. What was I expected to do if I was having a crisis and needed to see them? How would anyone at college take their spot? No one ever could and no one ever would.

As the days, then weeks, then months went on of not seeing my best friends, I realized no one would ever replace them but that was okay. I met amazing friends within a few weeks of being away at college. It was okay to make new best friends, it didn’t mean I didn’t love my home friends any less. The long distance between my two best friends; 1758 miles to University of California, Santa Barbara and 1359 miles to Tufts University to be exact, felt further and further away. The trio was separated for the first time in over 5 years. As exciting things and bad things happened to all of us, all I wanted to was to be able to give my best friends a hug. We may be growing as people and growing up, but we’ll never grow apart. From traveling to Atlanta, Georgia to Baltimore, Maryland to Ojai, California with my best friends, I’ve had some of the best experiences of my life with them. Being so far from my friends taught me that those who love and care about you will always make time to be there, no matter the time of day and no matter how busy there are. Forever and always.

Here’s to 3 1/2 more years of late night FaceTime calls, texts panicking over exams, and weird snapchats of our new life (sorry I lost our streaks).