With the exception of your family, there's very few people who make an impact on your life quite like your friends.

They're the people you call when you're having relationship problems, life problems, a mental breakdown, or when you need to figure out if this shirt goes with this pair of pants. If you're like me and you treat your friends like they're your own children (aka you protect them with your life), you'll probably be really anxious when you move into college. You're alone, most likely, you've probably been with the same ten people since you were four years old, and you're in a new setting. What if you don't find new people? What if the people you find don't like you that much? What if your home friends forget about you? Most importantly, what if Hayley burns herself on her heater when I'm not there to tell her not to sit on it? (Hayley, if you're reading this, this is a constant worry of mine).

My four best friends and I promised to never lose touch, see each other before Christmas break at least once, and send at least one fun fact or meme a week (This week's was that Zac Efron turned 30, which yielded the response, "If Zac Efron is 30, then I'm 30"). These are them below:

(L - R: Abby, me, Hayley, Alexis, and Shanna. Aren't we super cute???)

Friendships are a large commitment. Like Snap-streak commitment levels. Think about it: you go from seeing each other every day, cracking jokes, telling stories, and feeling like you know everything about them at all points of the day to there being some sort of weird switch where you feel like you're on the outskirts. Not in a bad way, just in a different way, understandably, because you're not with them a quarter as much as you were before. College also changes people -- their interest, their lives, and more, and that's scary. I picked up writing when I moved out here, one of my closest friends joined a student-run finance group, another is in labs all day engineering new medical products, and the list grows from there. What if they come back different? What if you come back different and you don't even realize it? On top of this, your class schedules don't match up, you're off doing your thing and they're off doing theirs, and all you want to do is scream "Dear God, can you guys pleaseall be free for more than 10 seconds so I can Oovoo all of you and tell you how much I love you and miss your faces? Jeez."

If you want to keep your friends, don't wait for them to make the first move. Send a text message. Tag them in an Instagram comment on some funny picture you saw. FaceTime when you're done with your homework. Even if they don't answer, it shows that you're making an effort and you're thinking of them, and that goes a long way. You also need to make sure that at the end of the day, you're true to yourself. The goal is to come home and have everything fall right back into place. You want to be sitting in that booth surrounded by your friends at the 99 and feel as if nothing as changed; as if you're still at the beginning of your senior year.

All of this being said, your home friends shouldn't prevent you from making new, great ones at school. If I spent every conversation here saying "So-and-so isn't (insert name here), so I don't think I can be friends with them," then I genuinely wouldn't have anybody here. You also should change in college, but in a positive way. Try something new. Buy that cute outfit that former you probably wouldn't have bought. Eat new foods. Find new places to study. I encourage you to try and further develop yourself as you broaden your horizons. This exposure is going to cause you to meet new people and make new connections. My advice: just go into school open-minded, but don't forget about the people who got you here. As they say, make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and one is gold.

(and if you guys are reading this, please FaceTime me within the next three days because I miss all of you)