Dear Friends From High School,

Can you believe we are in college? I can’t.

I remember the days of us applying to college. All sitting at someones dining room table eating pizza and filling out applications. “Do I have to send this university all four of my ACT scores?” “Does this essay make me sound like an airhead?”

Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator

I also remember the days of us hearing from universities. The acceptances and the rejections. The tears of joy and screaming when you get into your dream school. The ice cream and cuddles when you didn’t get into somewhere you thought you wanted to go to. It was quite the emotional rollercoaster.

I think that this is an appropriate time to reflect on how much has gone on since we packed up our childhood rooms and moved hundreds if not thousands of miles away from what we called home.

People always said it was going to be hard to keep in touch with your friends from high school once you went on to college. I think they said this because so much is changing and you have so much to do. When you first get to school you worry about making friends at school and then once you have your friends the work load finally hits us and the time we spent in high school socializing is now spent studying.

I don’t have a lunch period and time between classes to hear about that fight you got in with your boyfriend last night or see the new shoes you got at Nordstrom the other day and are obsessed with.

But just because we don’t talk on a daily basis (well most of us at least) doesn’t mean I don’t have a continued interest in your life and don’t want to hear about all the things you are doing at school. -

During Christmas break I saw one of my friends from high school for the first time since August. We exchanged a few texts every week or so and talked on the phone a few times, but we didn't talk nearly as much as we did when we were home. So I knew the gist of what was going on with her life and vice versa but not nearly as much as I was really curious about, there is only so much you can deduce from a finsta post or subtweet.

But the cool thing was, once I saw her, it was like nothing had changed. Obviously we had matured as all people do when they go to college, but our friendship connection didn’t. I am not kidding you, when I first saw her we spent three hours talking. I didn’t look at my phone once. Talking to her that day felt the same as talking to her at graduation and the day before that and the day before that. It is amazing how so much can change but how so much can also stay the same.

As I look back on my conversations with you guys, there was this little part of me that felt left out of your lives. For the previous years I was used to standing next to you as these crazy things happened, but now I am hearing about them from thousands of miles away. I will never know everyone mentioned in the stories. I won’t be able to picture these scenes in my head as I was able to do in the past.

Then I realized they felt the same way as I was telling my stories. When I talk to my friends at school about things I can say a name and they can picture a person and hear their voice in their head. But when I tell you guys a story I have to pull up a picture of the person I am talking about and give a brief life history about said person to try to convey their character.

And instead of being upset that I am not there to witness those things, I should be happy that they are happening. I always felt bad for those people who were still stuck in high school once they got to college, and I realized that not being happy for my friends for accomplishing all of these new things categorized me as still being in high school.

I am so happy for all of you for creating new lives for yourselves. For making all of these new friends and accomplishing all of these great things.

I just ask one thing, please don’t forget me when you are rich and famous.

Love always,

Paris