Friendship by far is the most important thing. Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert without a solid support system of people you can relate to, you wouldn't get by the way you'd like. People always say that your college friendships are the ones that will last a lifetime and that you will slowly lose touch with your high school ones. However, it seems impossible to wrap my head around that. There are so many reasons why your friends from high school are completely irreplaceable:
1. They Were There For the Most Important "First's"
Your friends from high school are the ones that were there for your first real milestones as you tiptoed into adulthood. You can't possibly forget the friends you gushed to when you had your first "mature" relationship in high school and were able to cry to when that ended, the ones you experienced your first house parties with all those Friday nights, the first legal car ride you took with your friends after getting your Driver's License, your first big group concert together or when you were applying to colleges for the first time extremely excited yet completely panicked and were able to remember that your friends were going through it right along with you.
There is no better feeling than knowing you have people conquering the same things as you, and being able to do it together.
2. These Are the Strong Friendships
It's no secret that High School is a time of major changes, ups and downs and a bunch of unwanted nonsense wrapped into one of the greatest times of your life. These are the most vital years in beginning to shape who we are and the people we want to become With that comes changes in your circle of friends and the friendships you maintain. The ones you enter high school may not be the ones you graduated with. People change and grow apart and it is all a natural part of growing up.
There are also the friendships you lose and mend again at a better time and the ones you meet later on the years and become so close as if you have known each other your whole life. The friends you have after high school are what I refer to as the strong friendships. These are the ones that were strong enough to survive or strong enough to come back together and be healthy. These friendships weeded out the "weak" ones throughout those short four years and made it through whatever drama or adversity came its way and that is a good foundation of lifetime friendships.
3. They Are Home
If there is one thing that is without a doubt be true, is that your high school friends will always bring you back "home" spiritually. They are a reminder of those four years, they represent how far you have come, just to see how grown up you guys are now.
Your high school friends represent six AM alarms, the traffic jam into the parking lot, hanging out after a long day at someone's house, mid-hallway chats between classes, early-dismissal trips to your favorite restaurant and waiting for each other outside of the auditorium before an assembly just to be able to sit together.
Your High School friends are the ones you come home to. They are the ones you are texting your entire trip back home from college for break, the ones you are excited to see, the ones you immediately go to the second you get home, the ones you do everything with once you are back home, the ones that make you feel like you just took a huge exhale after holding your breath for an entire semester.
No one can ever come in between those spots that your close friends held. They are your people, the ones who know you best and the ones you can be your 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18-year-old self around even years after the ages have long past. Your High School Friends are the ones that rise above all other friendships you will encounter in life.
