Graduation is coming and I am taking the time to stroll down memory lane. I have had great opportunities here at GCU, from being in the pep band to working on campus, to even writing for Odyssey! The connections I have made with people will impact me for a lifetime and I couldn't be prouder to walk across the graduation stage in a few days with the support of my friends and family.

When I started my first year here at GCU, I did not know what I was in for. Anyone can relate that one big fear that one has when they start a new school is if they are going to make friends. I left my home state, I left my family, I left my boyfriend, and I started college entirely alone and I will admit that it was a scary reality.

People and many movies will tell you that your roommates become your best friends, but that did not happen in my case. I was so different than my roommates and two of them were even in their second year here at GCU so they basically kept to themselves.

Your first semester, classes are pretty easy but they have nothing to do with your major so you really don't see those people again unless they are the same major as you. Let me tell you, there are not many Forensic Science majors at GCU so I didn't meet anyone in my major until my second year of school. Within my major, I can say that I made friends, and later, when I ended up switching majors, I still talked to a few of them but my best friends came from the pep band program.

My first year in the band program wasn't the year that I met these wonderful people that I get to call my best friends. I met most of them my second year in the program and it was the kind of moment where you say one word to someone and know that you two just click.

There is a saying that the people you meet in college will be your best friends for the rest of your life and now that I am completing my final year of college, I can say that this is true. I have made the best of friends through the band program, some younger than I, and they really make graduating in a few days bittersweet. I have the privilege of being able to graduate with one of my best friends, but at the same time, graduating is a scary reality when you and all your best friends realize that we all get to go back home, and home for us, happens to be in different states.

Everyone says "what if you never see each other again after graduation?" and wow, that got me thinking. I couldn't imagine not being able to see my friends ever again so my response to that question is "best friends will always find a way". Two of my friends graduated last year, and every time they come to Arizona to visit, I try my best to move my schedule around to see them. When there is a will, there is a way.

Not going to lie, when I say that I have friends, I mean that I can count these friends on one hand. I have a small group of friends but that is what makes our relationships so intimate and this makes it even harder to graduate. Meeting these friends have made my experience here at GCU the best it could be, and I can only thank God for giving me the opportunity to attend GCU and meet these wonderful people.

To my best friends, I love you all and just want you to know that you helped shaped my college experience in ways you can't realize. I may be graduating but I'm not gone. As I said, when there is a will, there is a way. I'll always be there when you need me to be, and plus, now we all have the excuse to take spontaneous road trips to see each other! Thank you for walking into my life and changing it for the better; thank you for giving me something to look back on as I graduate. You have all definitely made graduating a bittersweet moment for me but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I will never forget the late-night Dutch runs, the fun we would have at basketball games, the random hangouts at each other's houses, the secret Santa events, and everything else we went through together.

You ladies are truly the best of friends I could ever have.