Everyone says your college years are the best four years of your life, but no one really tells you why. Well, I will. College is a time in your life where you get to explore the real you (cliché, isn’t it?). You’re not in high school trying to impress the “popular” kids anymore, you’re not dealing with issue that will “ruin your career” (hopefully…) and you have this endless freedom to do whatever you want to. As you explore the real you, you end up finding that “you” aren’t yourself without your support team and that college is really the best four years of your life because of the people you will meet and will remember forever.

The other night, my roommate and I managed to convince our friend to lend us his car to go to the movies and promise we would pick him and our other friends up from a party on our way home. Shamefully, I can tell you it took us close to a half hour to find the party because we got lost in a college campus and the worst part about it was that it was the very first building we passed by on our way into the campus. Stressful as it was finding the party, my roommate and I were in tears laughing–for the second time that night (the first having been watching our friend give us sex moves and tips for “next time”)–because we felt like moms picking up our kids. When we finally found the guys and headed back home, some interesting conversations went down. What else can you expect when you pile up four rather drunk so-called men in the backseat of a car?

The next day, retelling these conversations to my friends and laughing harder than before, I realized that this is what college was all about. These were the moments I would remember in 50 years. These were the memories I would tell my kids and grandkids about when they ask me about my college experience.

It’s not how hard my classes were, or how much work I had to do, or how little sleep I got. No, it was the laughing-so-hard-it-hurts moments I shared with the friends I’d hope to have for a lifetime. The friends I chose to accompany me on the best four years of my life, the friends I will go to Chipotle with at least once every week, the ones that are always down to go to IHOP at 2 a.m., the ones who would drop anything to come be at your side if anything went wrong.

These are the nights, the moments, the friendships you’ll always remember, because the pain of getting a lower grade goes away, the sleep can be caught up on, the work load will seem like nothing compares to some of the things you’ll end up doing for work, and no matter what, nothing will ever compare to the weeknights you go out with your friends and just have the time of your life.