Throughout high school, we are typically a part of many different “groups.” We have friends who play sports, friends who do theater, and friends who are major book worms. We tend to believe that those friends, our high school friends, are the ones we will keep for life. At least, that’s what I had hoped. The brutal truth is most of our high school friends tend to drift away into our past. Moving on to college, you leave people behind. The friends that seemed to make the world keep turning will soon seem to forget you even exist.

Yes, it hurts, and it’s hard to accept but it is really what is best for you and your future. Now, I am not saying that every friend from your high school will completely fade because that’s not true -- but I will tell you that out of all of my friends from high school, I only really stay in touch with three. It was really hard the first couple weeks of my first year at college. I didn’t want to make new friends because I didn’t want to replace the ones I had back home. It really stunted my social development throughout the first couple weeks of college. I am sure some of you are reading this and thinking, “That didn’t happen at all” and maybe it didn’t; it could be I’m the only one who felt this way.

Going to college is a great opportunity to put your friends from home in the back of your mind for a bit. It gives you the chance to get to know new people who have different backgrounds and insights on this thing called life. Letting go of your high school friends gives you the chance to live your life, and create incredible bonds with other people. The friendships you create in college are unbreakable and amazing. They tend to be the type of friendships where you feel like you’ve known each other forever; they are the friendships that make you want to go back to school after a long summer, and have sleepovers in the teeny, tiny cement room you live in.

The majority of my friends had a hard time leaving behind their high school friends. I don’t want you to think that I am telling you to ditch every friend you had in high school because that’s not what I am saying at all. What I am telling you is that it’s okay to let go of your high school friends. It will make you open your eyes and see that there are other incredible people out there, waiting to create friendships and bonds that will last a lifetime. There is no greater feeling than knowing that although you have a couple friends back home, you have a lot of friends at college waiting to make lifelong memories. So, let go of the past, grab onto the future, and start building new friendships!