Later in life, they are the ones who can truly appreciate the magnitude of your success, because they knew you when you were a hot mess. This is where you rely on your friends and you get through it together.
You are learning how to be an adult and deal with adult problems, but unlike every other time in your life you lack the confidence and experience of having done similar things before. Talk to someone in their 30’s about their early 20’s years and they’ll all say a version of the same thing: “I had so much fun, but you couldn’t pay me to be that age again.” While your college years can be some great years, they are also incredibly stressful and difficult. You’ve gone through some of the hardest times in life together. Your friendships with your college friends are stronger than any others because you’ve forgiven them, you know they are far from perfect and you have chosen to go on loving them. It happens to everyone when you are learning how to drink and learning that there are more important things in life than a hot guy wanting to hook up with you. Someone puked on someone or slept with someone or passed out somewhere or generally was just a horror show of a human being for a night. In every college friend relationship there is a night out gone wrong story. They’ve seen you at your worst, and loved you for it.
They’ll remind you that you love to have fun, and that’s not something you should ever lose as you grow up. You’re not selling your textbooks for Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets anymore - and that’s exactly why you should always keep your college friends close. They keep you in one place and make you someone who pays attention to the consequences of your decisions. All of the fun things that make you a Real Adult like getting married, having a career, owning a home - those things are also anchors. You will always know the fun-loving, carefree side of each other.Ĭollege isn’t the “best time of your life” (if you’re lucky, life keeps getting better), but it is some of the most fun, carefree years you will have. You go to new homes for Thanksgiving, text new people when you’re stressed out, and learn to make a family out of people you choose. In all the places of love and support your family used to fit, you fill in the spaces with friends. When you leave home for college, you’re alone for the first time in your life. But in your college years, your friends were the most important thing in your world, making your bond stronger than any other friendships you’ll make in your life. Later on your partner and/or your kids, and maybe even your job will come first. You were friends when friends were the most important thing in your life.