Friends Like You

I never knew that when I said goodbye to all of my friends and packed up my stuff to come here that I was ending one part of my life with them. I never knew how tighter the hugs would be and how wonderful our laughter together would sound when we next got together. I didn't think that when I first came to university that I would feel guilty for making new friends, like I had deserted my old ones. I also didn't know how special these new friends would become, but for different reasons than my old ones.

You see, friends from back home see you differently than your university friends. You just call each other up when it's a good time and you all go out somewhere together. You hang together and then go to your respective homes. And when you fight, well, you've got other friends to be with and you can avoid these friends. But with friends at university it is different. You live with them. They see you when you've just woken up from the deepest sleep of your life, after you've just had your heart completely broken and before the hardest exam of your life. If you fight with one of them, you make up as soon as you can, because you realize that being mad at each other is pointless; besides, who will you have dinner with?

It is a strange balance, these friends at home, and these friends at university. One is a group of people who prepared you for where you are today, the other is a group of people who have come to mean more to you in four months than some people did in five years. You love them both and you love them for different reasons. They don't know each other, but they share a common bond: you. You are what unites them together and makes them special people. Sometimes you forget to let them know how special they are to you because it's so easy to forget with all the stress and confusion around you.

With your friends from both home and school, you have shared thoughts, aspirations, hugs, laughter, sorrow, drinks, tears, even more hugs and many special times. These are the people who know you the best. Sometimes, they become more important than family, because they ARE a family. A family that supports, nurtures, loves, fights and shares together. A family you often take for granted.

Whether you are together or far away, these people hold an integral part in your life.

I never knew that when I came to university that I would find people like the ones I have found that I could call my friends. Nor did I know how much I would look forward to the times when I was back with my other friends, too.

There are some things that you take for granted but hopefully it will never be any of you, these people in my life that enrich and improve it.