As a college senior, I see that there’s a lot of various posts going around that have people hitting us right in the heart with constant reminders that this is the beginning of the end. No more deflections of hiding in our academic careers, the not so pleasant parts of being adults are months away from becoming very real. But before we can really have the full on panic from stressing about deciding on graduate school or going to pursue a career in whatever we may have been studying for the past couple of years, I’ve just got a few things left to say as this final semester truly begins.

As helpful as our professors and our family members may be on our college careers, our friends are definitely significant during this part of our lives. They can be from a variety of parts of our lives, and I want to acknowledge four of the major groups that have impacted me.

To the friends who have stuck around since high school:

Dang, we’ve seen a lot. We went through those rough high school year where puberty chose who it was kind to, acne had no mercy and just all the awkwardness that comes from being a teenager. The fact that we are still in each other’s lives after high school says so much. We may not be talking to each other every single day, we might not even be in the same part of the country anymore. Friendships that have gone this long are definitely something special. It’s amazing to grow with people who have seen you at your awkwardest to hopefully your now more put together stages of your life. I hope that we don’t lose this connection because a friendship like this doesn’t exactly go away easily.

To the friends who I’ve known since Freshman Year:

This truly is it. Those days of being awkward kids who went from being big fish to small fish in a matter of months, as well as just struggling to figure out what major we were going to commit to hopefully decide what the rest of our life will be based upon. We’ve struggle along the way. No more high school level guidance, we’re at the real adult kind of level stuff. Whether we shared the same classes in or out of those required for our majors, there’s no denying that we’ve made it. Just a couple more months of hiding in college before we’re just going to have to be adultier adults. Hopefully we don’t let go of the friends we’ve made and kept through these years.

To the friends who I’ve lost:

There can be a plethora reasons of why we’re not in each other’s lives anymore. Maybe we don’t attend the same school anymore, maybe our schedules are just too busy, maybe there was a falling out or maybe that’s just how life went. No matter what the reason, I do acknowledge that this might be the last time we get to just hang out and talk before it changes to something most of us have never experienced before. I hope your life has been treating you right and that you’re okay. Maybe it’s for the best we’re not talking or maybe our paths will cross once more, all I know is that anyone who walked through our lives did for whatever reason.

To the friends who I’ve just recently met:

I’m sorry. Trust me, I get it. It really does suck whether I just met you, we got really close and now we can’t ignore the fact that I’m about to leave. Maybe I just met you and you’re an underclassmen or somehow our paths never crossed during these last couple of years and suddenly we’re bros. We don’t really get to choose when people get into our lives, all we can really do is go with it. I’m happy you’re a part of my life at all, especially during these weird years.

When it gets down to it, it doesn’t really matter when we met. If the friendship exists beyond the whole seeing each other every single day on campus, there is no reason why graduation has to be the expiration date on being friends. The ones who matter the most will always find a way to stay in your life. I can’t promise who will be in my life six years, six months, six weeks, hell even six days from now. Life is way too short to constantly be fighting to keep people in your life who don’t want to be there. I will do as much work as you guys to keep this going after graduation.

There’s still a whole semester before we have to actually be legitimate adults. The memories don’t have to stop being made just yet. We can still go out on a high point or just not give up. Here’s to the final chapter becoming real and to all those who helped us get through this.

Sincerely,

A College Senior