There are a few sayings that we have all heard before. "You'll find your true friends after high school." "The friends you meet in college will be your friends for life." "You find your bridesmaids in college." "You and your college friends will all live in a cul de sac when you're older with all of your children and spouses." Okay, maybe not the last one. But you get what I'm saying. All throughout your life people have told you that your college friends are the most important friends you are ever going to have. So this idea begs an important question. What happens to your high school friends?
Some people believe that once you go to college you have to become a new human being. You should never come home. You should cut off all ties from your past. And, that every college friendship you have will be better than all of the other friendships you've had in your life.
What if I told you that, despite popular belief, this isn't true.
People love to make fun of college students that "still hang out with their high school friends." I don't know about the rest of you, but the friends I had before college were pretty awesome. We hung out all of the time before all going to different states for college. We saw each other for 8 hours a day 5 times a week and then spent the weekends together as well. During the summers we would be together every day. My high school friends were the friends that were with me at my worst (middle school bump-it and braces days) and at my best (junior year peak). These people don't just know me, but they know why I am me.
Many people believe that once you go off to college you will have even better friendships than before. You will be best friends with your roommate because you live in the same room. You will be soul sisters with your hallmates because you will all go to dinner together, the gym together, and go out together.
But you did all of these things with your high school friends.
And on top of that, your high school friends have known you for years.
Not everyone has bad friends in high school. Honestly, a majority of people have pretty amazing friends by their side through those 4 years of their life. Who's to say that just because you go off to college these relationships have to end? Who's to say that the friends you meet in college are going to be superior to the ones you already have?
Nobody.
If your high school friends are amazing people who you absolutely love, you do not have to drift from them. You do not have to replace them. Keep in contact with your high school friends by still communicating with each other and keeping up with each other's lives. See them on breaks. Visit them at their colleges.
If you make the effort to keep those relationships that were built over years and years, you will keep those relationships. Do not just quit because people tell you that your college friends will be better anyways.
Make new friends but keep the old.
I'm not going to finish that sentence because it's too corny.
But one is silver and the other's gold.
