Moving away to college after living at home for 18 years is scary enough. The anxiety about the fact you have to actually meet new people and make new friends just adds to the emotional roller coaster that is your freshman year of college. I was fortunate enough to have entered my freshman year with a team full of built in friends so the adjustment was less of a challenge. However, little did I know that everyone I continued to meet that year would become a huge part of my life, and will continue to have a special place in my heart even after our four years at college come to an end. The friends you make your first year at college, whether they know it or not, are in your life for the long ride. You will you be so thankful the housing department put you one staircase away from your now best friends. Some will stay longer than others, but there will always be the few that you immediately miss after two days of being home on summer break. You will most likely be counting the days until your next trip to visit them, and most importantly counting down the days until you get to move back into the same hall as them.

These are the friends you have pulled all-nighters in the library with, probably doing less studying than originally intended, along with lots and lots of coffee. They are also the ones you complain to after not doing so well on said assignment you spent all night working on. These are the people who have seen you at your best moments, as well as at your worst. The homesickness, the stress, the break-ups, they are by your side for all of it. They know your strengths and help you through your weaknesses. They help you grow as a person and vice versa. After a year of spending every waking minute together, they know your class schedule and that whenever you don't answer a text you're probably napping. As often as they are there for you, you are there for them and learn so much as well. They are the only people that know you just as well, if not better, than you know yourself.

You will be so surprised how much easier the adjustment is to the huge transition into college life when you are going through it with some amazing people. When you are living away from home, a year seems like an unbearable amount of time; however, you will be surprised that once it comes to an end it feels like you are leaving home, and your new family all over again.