The adjustment from high school to college is a big one and it's easy to get so caught up in your studies that you forget that your social life is just as important. It can be hard to completely start over with new friends, especially if you’re still really close with your old ones. However, your college friends are so important, and here’s why:

1. They are there for you -- literally.

Your high school friends are probably some distance away and, let’s face it, texting is not always the best way to connect. If all your interactions with your friends are through a screen, it can leave you feeling a little bit empty. Your college friends can physically be there for you, whenever and wherever. Two in the morning? No problem.

2. They see the real you.

Not just the version of yourself that you display to most people. It’s a lot harder to hide things from your college friends because they basically (or literally) live with you. They see how messy you really are, how much you actually cry (don’t lie, it happens to the best of us), how snappy you can get when you’re stressed, and how crazy you get when you stay up too late. And guess what? They still love you. That’s a true miracle.

3. It's likely that you actually chose them.

In high school, you either end up friends with whomever you have classes with, or the people that you chose back in elementary or middle school. It’s likely that you’ve changed a lot since then, so your social group may not have ended up fitting to who you really are. In college, you get a new start. Once you find your group, you’ll probably notice that they are more your kind of people than a lot of your old friends were.

4. You never have to stay up at night by yourself.

We all know that you have plenty late nights. I was a night person long before college, I guess I was just ahead of my time. It’s so nice to walk down the hall at 2 a.m. to take a shower and realize that you’re not the only one still awake. It’s even nicer when you hit the “if I look at this textbook any longer I will actually die” point of the night, and instead of bearing your pain alone, you can go scream Justin Bieber songs in your friend’s room instead of studying. Ah, friendship. It’s a beautiful thing.

5. You will have the greatest memories with them.

They bring out the best in you, if you consider completely ridiculous to be the best (which I do). You will not easily forget the time that you bet your friend that he wouldn’t scare the crap out of the people next to you in the movie theater watching a scary movie, or the time that you all sang “Fabulous” from "High School Musical" for karaoke night. But you also won’t forget the smaller things, like getting pizza together, hanging out and laughing at nothing for hours, and dancing in parking lots.

6. You become each other's family.

A crazy one at that. You eat meals together and share the dreaded community bathrooms. You’re almost never alone in college, so you’re bound to develop closer bonds than you’ve had with any other friends. You can always count on them to listen to your rants and offer up their room for refuge, or just as a change of scenery. They will take care of you like a mom, make corny jokes like a dad, and sass the crap out of you like a sibling. They’re the family that you wish you had. And guess what? You finally do.