In my thirteen years of being a Girl Scout, we sang a song at every meeting that began with the following lyrics: “Make new friends, but keep the old.” That’s why when I left for college last summer, traveling two-thousand miles from my home, I knew it would be hard to leave my friends, but I was hopeful that I would be able to find that same kind of support system at Kenyon.
Luckily, my hopes came true, and I have an amazing group of friends here who I do not know what I would do without. However, what Girl Scouts did not prepare me for is the unfortunate truth that no matter how golden your old friends are to you, it is not always easy to maintain even the best of friendships when you live many states and a three-hour-time-difference apart. College, especially your first year of college, is exciting. In addition to making new friends, you’re taking new classes, joining new activities, and learning to live life on your own for the first time. All the way across the country, your friends are doing the exact same thing. It’s unfortunately all too easy to get caught up in the excitement and begin to neglect the friendships that helped you to become the person you were when you first came to college.
Because of a miscommunication that resulted in neither of us making the effort to contact the other in the midst of our busyness, we did not talk for the few months leading up to summer. But, that was okay because we were finally going to be able to see each other after a long year apart, and everything would be just like it was when we left for college. It was not that easy. Over the course of the school year, both my friend and I had grown as people, but I was sad to discover that when I reached out to her over summer, we had just grown too far in different directions. The distance that we had put between us, both physically and emotionally, was just too much to overcome so immediately.
I never expected that a person who I had been so close to for most of my life could feel like a complete stranger after such a relatively short time apart. But, despite any feelings of abandonment or disappointment that now exist between my friend and me, I truly do wish her the best and hope that she continues to enjoy her experience in college.
Unfortunately, not all friendships are built to last, and as sad as this, and as difficult as it was to come to terms with, it makes me all the more thankful for my older friendships that did last through my first year of college and for the new ones that I have built this past year.
No matter how my friendships continue to evolve as my college experience continues, I will always be grateful to and care for my friends, old and new, gold and silver, even the ones that have now rusted.