Ironically enough, change has become one of the only things in my life that is constant. Not only am I hit with something new almost every day, I've changed a ton too. I'm not the same person I was in high school (thank god), but neither is anyone else that I've kept in touch with.

It's so interesting to see how my group of "home friends" has morphed over the years since I've left for college. There are a few friends that I knew I'd keep in touch with, but some have definitely surprised me, either by no longer being a part of my life or by becoming a bigger one. If you're like me, you don't text or call anyone from home too often. Instead, you have a handful of people who you'll occasionally contact to catch up or reminisce over some distant memory and an even smaller handful of people who you make an effort to see every time you come home. And by smaller handful, I mean I have, like, three friends at home.

I recently had the time to see these wonderful humans and they reminded me of how lucky I am to have people who have stuck by my side through some of the toughest times and some of the best times. There's something comforting about knowing that no matter what this crazy life brings me, I'll always be able to come home and laugh about the same things with the same people.

The funny thing about life is, like I said earlier, they're not the same people though. They've changed and grown in ways I never would've expected, into people who are nothing like the ones I went through my awkward phase in middle school with. We've all become different people with different hopes, dreams, and fears than when we first became friends and, honestly, I'm not sure if 7th-grade me would be friends with any of them if we had met now. But you know what, 7th-grade me wouldn't be friends with me if we met now.

As I've gone through some of the biggest changes in my life, they've gone through theirs too. We've all moved on to different things and in different ways, just like anyone who goes off to college. The one thing that makes long-term friendships work, though? The effort. It would be easy to just forget to answer a text the craziness of a busy day or to make empty promises of plans to catch up. But this is why I value my small handful. Throughout all of the ups and downs, no matter how busy we all get or how different we become, I'll always be able to count on them to meet me at Applebee's at 11 PM.