I have heard time and time again that the friends I make in college will be the ones I keep forever, that my sorority sisters are going to one day be my bridesmaids, that college will be one of my greatest learning experiences and that these are going to be some of the best days of my life. I don’t doubt that any of this isn’t true. I know that I have plenty of incredible people out there waiting for me to meet them, and I’m on the horizon of innumerable experiences that are better than I can imagine right now, but I don’t think I should forget about the people I’ve already had such amazing memories with.
Choosing to go to a college where only one other person from my high school was going with me was a big decision, but a deliberate one. I started a new chapter, but that didn’t mean I was starting a whole new book. High school was filled with embarrassing freshman homecoming pictures, brace-faced selfies, hyped up football games, late night drives with my best friends and, admittedly, some Friday nights spent venting to my mom rather than being out at a party. I spent more time than I should have wishing I could just get out of high school, and not enough time taking mental pictures of the people who really got me through it.
Since beginning college, I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to go through the same conversation with different people; telling them what my major is, where I’m from and what I’m planning on doing after college. Meeting new people was one of the things I was most excited for in college, and it’s been a blast, but there are times when I really just miss sitting on the floor with the people who really know everything about me. After a long day of classes or just on a bad night, it’s so nice to call up someone who knows that something’s wrong without having to say it.
My college friends might be the ones that I’ll hold onto forever, but I know I’m not going to let go of the friends who knew and loved me when I was still caught up in my awkward stage, when I wasn’t sure who I was, when I made awfully misspelled Facebook statuses and made horrifying style choices. I’ve heard plenty of people say that they cut off all of their ties to anyone from high school once they got to college, and sometimes, I’ve felt bad for missing my high school friends as much as I do. When I do, however, I turn to one of the sources of knowledge that I know will never fail me…Winnie the Pooh. A.A. Milne phrased it best when he wrote, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” I know it isn’t truly a goodbye when I hang up the phone or go back for break, but I also know how hard it feels saying “see you later,” just because my friends are worth it.
