A friend once told me that if you are friends with someone for seven years, then, statistically, you and that person will be friends for a lifetime. Being a young college student however, my life is in a constant state of transition, making it a bit more difficult to remain in contact with the people I considered to be my best friends throughout high school. Over the past couple years, I have come in to contact with a great many people that i now consider to be my greatest friends and I couldn't imagine a life without them.
My newfound college friends have helped me through a time in my life with the greatest amount of transition and expectation. The past four years have been crucial to my development as a working adult; the prospect of tackling adulthood without the people who have been with me through some of the toughest years thus far gives me trepidation about moving forward. In just a few short months, my friends will be moving away, possibly to Atlanta, or possibly to a state across the country- wherever their careers may take them. While I would very much love to be able to talk to and keep up with those people's lives, the reality of the situation is that I am a young professional and so are my friends. We have burgeoning careers that will most likely occupy a great portion of our lives as we try to navigate the working world and, thus, remaining in constant contact with people is pretty unlikely. While it would be ideal to keep certain friends forever, life works in such a way that all of us disperse and move around and follow our own paths, uncertain if they will ever cross with another. It's important to be grateful of friends while you have them.
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There are friends, however, that will stick around in your life for as long as you live. You're lucky enough that their life is inextricably linked with yours and the roads of life are not as difficult when you have someone to traverse them with you. I have been lucky enough to call some of the people I know from high school "best friends." I've been out of high school for three years, yet we all still find the time to see one another. That kind of commitment is something I intend to maintain throughout my life.
I recently travelled back to my high school for a marching band reunion. At the game, there were so many of my friends I had spent all of my time with during those four years. There were friends that I still see to this day and friends that I have not seen in years. What was important, however, is that we all recognized that we can't keep in contact all the time, our busy lives simply do not allow for it. Going to that game was like going back in time. Nothing had changed between all of us and we were able to talk with one another like old friends, despite the years between us.
Cherish the friends that you have and recognize that life may take us in directions that do not include those people. Just because you are apart, there's nothing wrong wrong with catching up, rather than keeping up. As young professionals, we should understand that there will be distance between us and our friends, but that does not means that the love and respect we show for them should be diminished.
