From fifth grade field trips to awkward middle school days, from high school formals to college orientation, my best friend and I can now say that we have been through it all together. After spending most of my senior year dreading the day when I would have to leave my best friend, I screamed with joy when she told me she made the decision to attend Gustavus with me. Now that we are here, I can’t imagine what life would be without her.
In our near-decade of friendship, we have been there for each other through all the ups-and-downs. I am her paparazzi when it comes to taking artsy pictures for her Insta, and she picks out my outfits when I don’t know what to wear. My extroverted self fills the silence when her quiet nature doesn’t. We share food, we share books, we share secrets. Our personalities balance each other out perfectly. We just compliment each other, we have for years.
College hasn’t changed our friendship, unless perhaps to make it better. I love that we can now walk to each others’ place when we want to hang out, rather than having an almost half-hour drive between us. Our witty back-and-forth chatter in the caf often makes our new friends laugh and say, “Awww, friendship goals!” She supports me by reading every word I write, and I am her biggest fan at her dance performances. Before moving in, we were both so worried that our friendship would fall apart but the opposite has happened: we are closer than ever.
A lot of people were wary about our decision to attend the same college, and warned us that it would be horrible. They said we wouldn’t be friends when we got there, that it’s not good to cling to the same people. But we have new friends, we are branching out in different ways, and we even decided to not room together this year in order to meet new people.
But having her here has been nothing but good: she’s my comfort from home, she’s the person that knows everything about me and my past, she’s the one who believes in me and reminds me why I’m here when I am having a hard time. And, of course, I do the same for her. I have learned that those warnings from other people are just one person’s experience: that doesn’t mean our friendship is doomed to the same fate.
We both fell in love with Gustavus for different reasons, but attending college together has strengthened our friendship immensely. I can’t wait to see what the next few years will bring us.