When you're younger finding friends is easy, you make friends with people that you sit next to and the ones that you find the most fun to be around, but you don't really understand how you become friends with them you just do. Then as you get older to start to see people more clearly than you did when you were 8 and you realize that those people aren't exactly how they use to be. Which is fine because everyone grows up and changes throughout their lifetime. No biggie. Then you get to high school, and you find those people that you find yourself spending all your time with; whether they're teammates or classmates that you seem to take some sort of interest in or they are long time friends that you've known for years and will always be there for one another. The end of high school comes and you don't want to leave your friends because you're moving to a big city and won't know anyone..that person was me. I come from a small town where everyone knows everyone. Where I've had the same friends since I was 10 or 11. But now that I am in my second year of college I am starting to realize that those same friends aren't always there like I thought they would be.

Since moving to Louisville I've created friendships that have become stronger than those that I did have in high school, which was quite shocking to me because I never thought that my hometown friends would become like strangers to me. But because we're all growing up and moving on with our lives we tend to have different lifestyles and create friendships in college. Don't get me wrong I will always love my friends from back home but the bond that I have with my friends who are my teammates is something that I cherish so much.

To those of you who are going to be leaving high school soon and going to a college where you will know no one my advice to you is to not be afraid. To not be scared that you are going to not make friends as easily, or that you will soon forget your friends from back home because it happens to everyone. Some people just happen to stay close to all their friends from high school so it's easy not to let them go. But the best part about going where no one else from your high school is going is the fact that you find a relationship so powerful in other people that you never thought you would have.

Looking back I never thought that I would be where I am today, playing college volleyball and creating friendships with people that I have come to cherish. But I would never be where I am today without the friendships that I made during high school and the ones that I lost after high school. So to those of you that have come into my life and left thank you because you have opened my world up to heartache that was harder than anything before. To those of you that are still in my life, I thank you because you are making me who I am today and sticking with me through all of my ups and downs.