I like to believe that in high school I was decently popular and had a fairly good amount of really close friends. No one has yet to tell me otherwise, so that is what we're gonna go with. I hail from a medium-large city where most people tend to stay home and go to the local university. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, it just wasn’t in the cards for me. I loved high school and my friends, but it was time for me to make my exit and start my life elsewhere.

My parents called me brave, and my friends called me crazy. I graduated from a school of about 450 students, and my senior class had 89. Of those 89, about 15 of us planned to leave the city for college. I planned to move four hours away and everyone else who didn’t leave home was headed to the same school, or at least were staying in the city to work and do their own thing.

Since I loved my high school friends so much, I thought not much would change. It couldn’t change. As the summer before freshman year carried on into the dog days of August, people seemed to fall off the face of the planet. While I now know this is common, I thought this was absolutely insane at the time. With my last few days at home coming and going quickly, I made last minute attempts at hanging out with as many of my friends as possible. The goodbyes really started to happen and I just knew when I came back for our high school’s homecoming game over fall break, everything would be the same. I was sadly mistaken.

After a few weeks in my new whirlwind college life, I had really noticed the change. Everyone was carrying on and experiencing college, without me. After a while, I got really sad and would call my mom in tears about how I missed my friends and needed to come home. My mom told me to tough it out and that if things didn’t change, we could revisit me coming home after the semester ended. Thank goodness for that woman.

When I came home for fall break, I went out with my closest friends for lunch dates, and headed to the game on Friday. I ran into a lot of old classmates and it was just nice. There really isn’t a better way to describe it. While it was good to see them, it really opened my eyes. I had changed. My friends had changed.

I made my way back to WKU after fall break with a happy heart. I thought going back to school from fall break would just be awful and I wouldn’t be able to manage it. I am so glad I was wrong about all of this. I fell in love with WKU, its people, and most importantly my friends in and out of my sorority. As time went on, more friends from home started to dwindle away into memories and it definitely stung at first, but then it became okay because I knew it was a natural thing.

Now that I am at home for the summer, everything is a bit weird. A good weird. It’s weird not to have someone within two seconds of me available to hang out with. At home, I’m reconnected with close friends whom I really do want to keep in touch with forever. As for others, I just like and comment on Facebook and Instagram posts from time to time. It’s also good to run into these people from time to time at the grocery store or a sporting event and ask how they’re doing. At one point, my world revolved around my high school and these people. I owe a lot of who I am to them. At first it is hard to let go, but in the end it all works out.

P.S. High school friends, if you happen to read this, I still love all of you. Pinky promise.