Going into my first year of college, I was told that I could look forward to making all new friends and leaving my friends from high school in the dust. "Your high school friends will be ancient history", so they said. Turns out, they were wrong. I'm going into my sophomore year of college and thankfully I can say that I still have my ~best~ best friends from high school by my side.

I'm not close with all my friends from high school anymore, but I do have a handful of high school friends who turned out to be middle school, high school, AND college friends. Sure, I've made new friends in college, but my best friends from high school are still a big part of my life.

My best friends from home and I have history - some good, some bad. They have seen me on my best and worst days and still somehow love me at the end of them all. Our friendships prevailed through all the petty high school drama. We cheered alongside each other in the student section of our high school football games. We watched each other walk towards the diplomas (& freedom) we had been longing for at high school graduation.

The friends you meet in college get to know you. The friends you have from high school know you. They know that you'll order an 8-count nugget meal with a lemonade from Chick-Fil-A for lunch and that you won't be taking any science classes this semester because it's your least favorite subject. They know that transitioning from a 1,200 person high school to a 29,000 person college isn't easy and that it helps to see a familiar face every once in a while.

Your high school friends will be the perfect dose of home you need when you're away at college. They'll remind you that being from your little ole hometown isn't so bad after all - because it gave you each other.

The absolute best part of still having your high school friends in college is knowing that y'all have chosen to remain friends. There are many miles between myself and some of my best friends from high school and we have all made new friends in college. We're all quite busy doing the whole college thing. But that's the beauty of it: we have chosen to keep putting effort into our friendships.

Some people claim they only hung out with their high school friends because there was a slim pickin' of people to choose from. Some say their high school friends were just convenient - they lived 5 minutes down the road & your mom is friends with their mom type of thing. Maybe y'all were in the same class kindergarten through senior year so you figured y'all might as well be friends.

After one year of college, full of fresh faces and new friendships, I still text our group message from high school when I need advice (shoutout to them for always replying). Thank you for the random "how are you?" texts and dinner date invitations to catch up on life. Thank you for letting me be a part of your "college life." Thank you for proving all those people wrong about being "ancient history".

Thank you high school besties, for becoming so much more than my "old best friends from high school".