In all honesty, my best friend is probably going to kill me for writing this. As soon as this article goes live I’m expecting a text message that’s a combination of, “That was so sweet” and “Why would you say those things on the internet!” But, when you have a best friend like mine, sometimes you just have to brag. So, to my favorite person in the world, please don’t kill me the next time we’re in the same place because I wrote this. Besides, who else do you know that would help you hide the body?
My best friend left for college a year before I did. I knew the transition from seeing her every day to sporadic facetime calls would be hard. What I didn’t expect was that the hardest thing wasn’t making time to talk or scrambling to see each other during breaks that were always too short, it was how I could no longer relate to her everyday activities. In high school, we participated in all the same programs and there was never a time I felt like I couldn’t understand her emotions or thoughts.
I talked to her as often as I could though and because of everything I knew about her, I was able to better comprehend her reactions to her circumstances. I started to wonder about the coming year and whether my own transition to college would resemble everything she was going through at the time. To be frank, I assumed the difficulties she was experiencing were isolated to her situation. I mean I started counting down the days to graduation in January of my junior year, how could I struggle to adjust to college?
I literally could not have been more wrong. Though we each struggled (or in my case, are still struggling) to adjust to different aspects of life in college, they all revolve around the same idea: who do I want to be? I mean besides getting the whole degree and everything, isn’t finding yourself what college is all about? Well, how in the world are you supposed to do that when you’re in a brand new location where nobody knows you; you need a rock.
My best friend is without a shadow of a doubt my rock. Despite being more than 400 miles away, she never fails to be there for me. Every time I feel like the stress of that week’s workload is going to bury me or I’m struggling to maintain my sense of self (which happens about every other week to be completely transparent), she is spammed with endless texts and half a dozen phone calls. And somehow she never fails to calm me down, help talk it out, and remind me that everything will turn out okay.
It wasn’t until college turned my world upside down and I kept going to my best friend for advice that I realized how much she shaped who I am and want to be. Best friend, your motherly instincts have rubbed off on me and are the reason I always carry cough drops, a phone charger and a stapler with me to class. It’s because of your introspection and insightfulness that I’m starting to realize it’s okay to put myself first and that what others think of me isn’t half as important as what I think. And, of course, you are the reason I can whip out a terrible pun at a moment’s notice and am addicted to food meant for five-year-olds.
Most people are beyond blessed if they ever come across a friend half as good as you during their lifetime. And if any of you reading this think you have found that person, send them a text or give them a call and let them know you’re thinking of them. I promise you it’ll brighten their day to know you miss and think about them just as much as they do. There’s no way we would be able to find ourselves or navigate this insane world without these amazing people. So count your stars and the days till your next reunion if you’re ever lucky enough to find one (even though they probably aren’t as wonderful as my best friend!)\