It was easy when we were in pre-school; if you liked drinking apple juice and playing Barbie’s and I liked drinking apple juice playing Barbie’s, then we were friends.
Then one day, I would break one of your favorite crayons and we would have a three-year-old friend-breakup.
Almost immediately, we would each move on to the next person who liked drinking apple juice and playing Barbie’s.
Simpler times; gone but never forgotten.
However, we grew up.
Friendship became complicated, friend “break-ups” were no longer a simple transition, and we began breaking much more than each other’s crayons.
I still have my group of friends that stuck with me throughout the apple juice years, and into the dreaded high school years, and I will cherish them forever.
College, however, is an entirely new ball game.
This is a time when you are thrown into the open ocean without a paddle board or Wilson.
No matter who you enter the system with, college finds a way to distance the people who held your hand on the way in.
This is a period of growth and self-discovery, you start your first year as one person and enter your fourth as a changed human, one way or another.
As you begin to figure out who you really are, you find people who are willing to stand by you through this entire transition, and change alongside with you.
You begin to find people who teach you and inspire you to be the best possible human you can be, you find your soul mates, no matter how cliché that may be.
You see each other on your best days and your worst days, and you know that they will be there no matter what category the next day may fall into.
You go through unimaginable things with them.
They are there when you find out that someone you once held so dear took their last breath the day before.
You are there for them when they find out that their family has made the decision to split apart, after countless years together.
You annoy them to no end, and they do the same to you.
You communicate with them on a more consistent basis than you do with your boyfriend.
Your boyfriend becomes the third wheel.
Your texting streak has gone on for about six months, only stopping for sleep.
When the new One Direction album is released, you text each other in strictly caps-lock for at least 48 hours.
You send them links to Buzzfeed articles at 3:00 a.m., and you don’t feel bad when they wake up because of it. Someone else needs to see the 15 reasons why corgis are the best animals on the planet.
They are the people that you run to when you need to hear brutal honesty and receive constructive criticism.
They are also the people you run to when you need someone to console you when you are beginning to experience a mental breakdown.
They are the people you watch "American Sniper" with at 1:00 a.m. for unexplainable reasons.
And they are the people who become completely ingrained into your life.
They are the people who tell you to reach for your goals, and to take the chance, no matter how much it may distance you from each other.
These are the people holding your hand when you walk out the other side of your four-year ride through the introduction of real life.
These are your true friends.
These are your people.
