One thing that experience has taught me, is that friends will come and go. The struggle, especially when you graduate high school, is which friendships are worth fighting for and when it’s time to move on. There are a multitude of things that can turn friends into acquaintances and not all of them involve kissing an ex-boyfriend or never returning your favorite shirt. Sometimes you have to let nature run its course and remind yourself that the world will keep turning.
After graduation things tend to get a little blurry, you are so nervous and excited to take the next steps into adulthood and see what the future holds. Ideally, you visualize this future with your best friends by your side, the girl you’ve played soccer with since third grade and the guys you ate lunch with every day since freshman year. Whether you are moving 10 minutes away or across the country you are putting yourself to a new environment with an entirely different group of people that are ultimately working towards the same goal that you are. This opens up a lot of doors to new relationships and has a tendency to close a few as well. Personally, catching up with friends from high school after a few months of being away at college gave me a lot of perspective on not just how they have changed but how much I had. Instead of knowing everyone like the back of your hand, you’re now high school friends can’t put a name to the faces they see on your Instagram, you have new interests in things you’ve never even heard of and ultimately you are pursuing different paths. The hard part is sticking through the unfamiliar parts and still being able to find things to talk about other than the people you know from high school, luckily there’s always the Kardashians.
College is typically where people learn to find the balance between school, work and a social life, and it’s safe to say that some find that balance faster than others. Class schedules, part time jobs and sleep somewhere in between the two can really put a damper on a friendship, there is nothing more irritating than the girl that bails on every scheduled brunch date and sometimes it’s hard not to take things personally. Whether you have one or you are the flakey friend; communication is always the best way to avoid conflict. Like any relationship it’s important that there is a mutual effort but sometimes one BFF has more time to give than the other and that something that anyone in college has to be able to recognize and respect.
With that being said, there is a difference between being busy and being blown off. It’s always best to support the friends in the time of need, bring them a coffee, edit their paper but if you’re constantly trying to put forth the effort and isn’t being reciprocated it’s probably best to give that individual sometime to sort their life out and catch up when you’re schedules can permit it. Its college and we’re all busy but don’t stick your neck out for people that can’t spare 10 seconds for a courtesy reply. Your twenties are a time of self-discovery and with constant growth comes constant change, with that said, you will grow out of people and that’s okay. It’s never easy watching friends turn into acquaintances, but luckily these outcomes don’t have to end in a falling out. Friends will come and go, but there will always be pizza.