Remember the nights of endless laughter? Making afterschool plans during lunch? Being scolded in class for whispering about the gossip you found out in third period? Losing your voice and spending cold nights with the student section at football games? When almost every possibility in the world seemed limitless? No one had the same high school memories as anybody else. There was no choice but to live your life on repeat: sit in the same cold, plastic seats, see the same faces and walk the same big, crowded hallways. Every. Single. Day.
The friendships you make in high school can be many different things. Some will last you a lifetime, and others will guide you to places you never thought you could go. Whether your high school friendships began brewing in elementary school or your senior year, it’s very unlikely to keep all of them around forever.
The golden years of high school are meant to be reminisced and soaked in, like sun rays on a hot day. That doesn’t mean it’s crucial to be acquainted with everyone you know from them. Like moving from one school to another, there are hundreds of opportunities that will come and go to make new friends. There will be people who will promise that you’ll stay in touch and never talk to you again. Friends that keep up and like all of your posts but never think twice about using the same energy to text you. Even people that you never thought twice about in high school that will give you more time of day than the friends you thought would.
As frustrating as that can be, it’s important to understand that you cannot force things into existence.
Getting into the groove of things in college is much different than high school. For one, nearly every single person is on the same boat, trying to get to the same destination as you (which is graduation, yet again.) The four years spent with the same exact people are said to “prep you for college,” and in some ways that is true. You’re bound to find a person in college with the same passion for your major, goes to the same spot for breakfast after their eight a.m. and forgets to do the biology homework, just like you.
So if you find yourself losing and drifting away from the friends you thought would be by your side through thick and thin, let it go. Your priorities should not be limited to mending the connections that are not supposed to stay in tact. Everyone will go their separate ways eventually and those who choose to stay will do exactly that.
You learn a lot in the second tier of four-year schooling. Beyond the hours spent teaching yourself units of content, you’ll also pick up on figuring out what you want to do, who you want to be and what everything means. Your high school friends were there for some of the most pivotal moments of your teenage years. Even if you find new ones to share your college milestones with, those memories won’t ever fade. Take in every single opportunity and don’t hold yourself back!