Friends today, gone tomorrow

We take for granted those days in our youth when we had to put in zero effort to see our friends. They were just always there, almost every day in class or around town. But those days don't last.

I'm almost 21 and a second-year college student and it's absolutely obvious how exponentially more difficult it gets to make time for friends. Hell, it's hard to make time for the friends I've made in college, let alone my high school friends. Our majors differ, our colleges differ, our STATES differ. There are literally miles and miles and miles between us. And not only that - we lead separate lives of our own now.

It takes serious effort just to squeeze in a visit with a couple of these friends at a time and perhaps a blood sacrifice to see them all at once. And yes, that means making sacrifices (of the personal kind, not the blood kind) to make something like that happen. But you know that if you're putting in that effort, the friends you do make time for are damn worth it.

It's almost the end of summer and I've only seen each of my closest high school friends once. (Twice, in Emily's case). Things like work, family, school, and illness have reared their ugly heads on a number of occasions. But will we ever stop trying? I'm certainly not ready to back down yet.

So, I encourage everyone to take a long hard look at their schedules. Be open to making a sacrifice, because maybe taking a day off from work or putting off a study session isn't as bad as it seems. And make the time to catch up with the friends you treasure most.

My friends and I did manage to get together one last time before we head back for school, and we were one friend short because she's being cool in China, learning Chinese and whatnot. But anyway, during our conversation, a great piece of wisdom came up, and that is that things will never be same after you graduate high school, but you have to accept it. Accept the fact that you might not see each other more than once the whole summer, or maybe not even send more than a single text. At the end of the day, it's always a great time when you do get together.

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