You hear the sad stories from people who graduate before you saying that you will hardly or never talk to the people from high school again, that college is where you meet the best friends of your life. While I have indeed met some of the best friends of my life in college, I can’t deny this, I believe that I also met some of the best friends of my life in high school. Which is why, graduating high school, I was scared that I would lose my friends from home. I knew we would tell each other that we would “keep in touch” and “see each other all the time” but in my head, that wasn’t good enough. I had grown up with these people and for 12 years we had seen each other almost every single day. How in the world could our relationships not change?!
While they were right to some extent, we do still talk in our same group message from high school every single day and we try our best to see each other when we can, I was also right. Our relationship did change – it was inevitable; however, I think it changed for the better.
Our relationship in high school was a conventional one, meaning we were mainly friends because we were involved in the same things or because we were in the same classes, but going off to different schools shifted the type of friendship into the intentional territory. Now, we are friends because we choose to talk to each other, we choose to see each other, we choose to continue to be present in each other’s lives. We have all gone off to college – some 30 minutes away from each other, some 2000 miles away – and have been there for a semester and a half now, but no matter the distance, I am still able to feel their love, acceptance, and support – sometimes even more than the people I’m 2 feet away from.
I realize this is not every story nor is it the only story in which friends from home continue for the rest of time – I wanted to express my gratitude to my hometown friends. They are still to this day some of the most genuine, thoughtful, hilarious, beautiful-hearted people I have ever met in my entire life. So, to my hometown friends: thank you. You have taught me how to love, how to be loved, to accept myself and others, how to laugh at the stupid things I do (which there are a lot of them), how to pursue what sets my soul on fire, for all of the advice, hugs, pep talks, jokes, dance moves, and so much more. While we may add new friends to our lives or grow apart, I know I can always count on you to be there for me and love on me. You are still some of my best friends on the planet. Thank you for giving me a friendship-success-story to write about. I love you all.
