You are stripped from what you've known for the first 18 years of your life and you are placed in this town, on this campus, in this random, gross building and find yourself amongst complete and total strangers. You spend those first 18 years not even knowing these people exist, and within a matter of months, you cannot see the next 45+ years without them.
The bonds that are formed seem to have always been there. They take you from that foreign place you started at and before you know it, strangers become friends, campus becomes home, and those same friends become family. No longer are your parents under the same roof, no longer do your teachers know you by first name...mother's name..sister's name. Consequently, the relationships you make on your own end up becoming so important. They become the sanctuary from all things scary when life gets hard and momma's hugs are too far away. These friendships usher you through your first "big girl" ( or so you thought) relationship, first all night cram session, first dates to a "fraternity" function...(well... most of us. some of us weren't cool enough. ha!) first sorority rush, first questions of faith, first heartbreaks, first bad grades, first swaps, first big disappointments, first...(second, third and fourth) major changes. They are there to cover you when your favorite band comes to town and your bank account can't afford your next drink, let alone the cover to get in. They are there to laugh at the girl who dates your ex after you, even though there is nothing wrong with either person. They are there to make sure you are in church come Sunday morning. They hate high school boyfriends with you and they wipe tears when your heart hurts so badly you swear it will break.
There is something different.. something special about these friendships. I've always said that it was bitter sweet. We are pulled from comfort, attend a school, and make these great friends. The only downfall is that we are only given four years with them. At the beginning you think four years will last forever. When it's over.. you can't believe it went that fast and would give anything to go back.
Just recently I have realized how special my college friends were.. how speicial they are.. how special they will always be. Throughout those four years, their families became my family, their pets.. my pets, their high school friends.. my new friends, their boyfriends.. my brothers. It is this evolving process that you don't realize is happening until after. How special it is. How blessed one is because of it.
There is something to be said about college friends who love you through good and bad and ugly. Who no longer live down the hall, no longer share a dorm room, but live hours away and still drop whatever it is they having going on in their own lives to be there.. to catch the tears, mend the heart, pray the prayers. The friends who make promises to be there and you know they mean it. The friends who will be there when you walk down the aisle, have your first baby, celebrate your degree, promotion, dream job. They will be there when one loses a child, gets a divorce, says goodbye to a mother, to a father, way too early. They are the people who hurt when you hurt because they, too, have loved what you have loved and lost what you have lost.
A sweet card, a prayer said on your behalf, a random phone call, a text message, an email, a snap chat, a drive across town, across country.
I've realized that no matter where one goes and ends up after the four years they spend in college, the friendships that were made there will long outlast the time spent on campus. They are special.. they are real... they are genuine.. they are BLESSINGS.
I am thankful. I have been blessed with the best group of friends to have guided me through the last four years and I am a better person for the way in which they are guiding me now and how I know they will guide me in the years to come.
As we had to say goodbye to our first loving, fun, energetic, thoughtful and spirited momma... we cling to this sweet gift of friendship and to His promises we have seen proven true... time and time again.
I love you girls. Today.. and everyday. Thank you for loving me so well. I am a better woman everyday because of it.
Love,
Kitty
