Many people say that you meet the best friends of your life in college. You get to reinvent yourself, experience new things, and choose exactly who you want to surround yourself with. In childhood, friends were often made based on proximity rather than similarity. Your best friend was who you sat next to in an elementary school classroom, or whoever was always around to play after school.
Of course, as we grow older and change, some of these friendships fade away, while others remain. As important as the friends that you make in college are, childhood friendships are something special— and they should not be taken for granted.
Despite your differences, your childhood friends are the only ones who share those precious early experiences and growing pains. If you grew up in one place, your friends were likely always by your side throughout adolescence.
You were there for each other through all the years of school, the awkward middle school phase, and high school graduation. It was not a glamorous time for anyone, but it was probably extremely formative. That is why if you are lucky enough to have stayed in contact with your childhood friends to this day, they have access to a certain part of you that even you may not know. You have a stronger bond because you contributed to each other’s childhoods.
In the college years, it can be hard to maintain those friendships. College is more about focusing on the present and the future, and sometimes it feels counterproductive to associate yourself with the past. But your childhood friends don’t have to fall into that category.
People are bound to change as they get older, and I know that in many cases, friendships cannot survive those changes. It takes a lot of effort and commitment to maintain long-lasting friendships. It is easy to forget that the people won’t just stay by your side without any effort.
But if you and your childhood friends are able to maintain communication, hang out when you are home, and talk when you are at school, you could have some really special friendships. The best part about childhood friends is that they know where you came from and hopefully you can grow and change together.
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