No matter how far you travel for college, the transition is an emotional rollercoaster on not only you, but also all of your family and friends. You are told by older siblings or friends what you should bring for your dorm room, how much better college is than high school and given advice on peer pressure or other temptations. But something that nobody will warn you about is how hard the goodbyes with your best friends will be.
You think the summer going into freshman year of college will be the longest summer of your life, but trust me it will fly by. In the blink of an eye, you go from throwing your graduation cap in the air to putting the last suitcase in the trunk of your parents’ car right as you’re about to leave for college. The friends that you made memories with from the time you first walked into elementary school to the last time you walked out the doors of your high school will all be going to different colleges. The harsh reality of them not being by your side through everything anymore will hit you just as you hug them goodbye one last time for the next few months. Everyone who goes to college experiences these feelings. The tears will most likely flow, but you were never warned how hard the goodbyes would be. One by one, your best friends will pack up their cars, move into a small room with an unfamiliar roommate, surrounded by complete strangers, be possibly several hours away and meet new best friends.
New best friends that they will now tell all their secrets to, go on spontaneous adventures with and will miss every time they are home for a break when they are hanging out with you after months of being apart. Those new best friends may feel like your replacements, but, trust me, they are not. When your friends are away at college with all of their new best friends, they often think of you. They remember going on field trips in elementary school with you, gossiping about the cute boy in middle school with you, going to Friday night football games in high school with you, spending what felt like the shortest summer with you and, lastly, crying as they left for college with you. Their new best friends look out for them after a rough night, put a smile on their faces when they are sad and are there to help them through the rough times when you physically cannot be.
Going your separate ways is difficult, don’t get me wrong, but it is all a part of growing up. Going your separate ways is a blessing in disguise. You may have taken your best friends for granted before college came along and you may not have appreciated them as they should have been before college came along. Now that you have said goodbye and live hundreds of miles away from all of your best friends, you’re surrounded by newly familiar faces who turn out to be your new best friends. You genuinely miss the best friends that you have known your whole life and wish you had told them more often how much they meant to you. This experience will open your eyes and will help you understand that every second that you spend with your old best friends, or anyone for that matter, should be counted as precious time. Time that cannot be repeated. Enjoy spending time with everyone you come in contact with through your freshman year of college and your lifetime, but especially your old best friends. When you are home on a break, even if it is just for one day, make time for your old best friends to let them know how much you miss them and how much they are appreciated. Having best friends is a necessity in life, and they deserve to know how much they mean to you.
