That When Kelly and Tayla Tell Me to Write a Blog Post, I Do (and other lessons about friendship)

One of the first thoughts that I had after graduating high school in May was that it was so wonderful that now that I didn't have to go to school with them everyday, I never had to spend time with people that I didn't want to spend time with. There were a few people that were on the top of this list. There were also people that were on the top of my "I never want to lose touch with them" list. But what about the people in between?

We all know how it is. We have our friends and then we have our acquaintances. High school is a place that there a lot of acquaintances. Some times you meet people and you instantly click, you guys become friends. You hang out all the time and you're inseparable. Other people, you want nothing to do with from the moment you meet. Then there are the people that you have always had classes with. You guys get along fine and you share jokes in class but it doesn't go too much further than bonding over how awful your history homework is. There are a lot of these people in high school, so it can be hard to really sift through them at graduation and categorize them as "people I want to see again" and "people I could do without".

It's been almost three months since graduation and I haven't hung out with too many people. Work has held a monopoly on my time and anything left has been reserved for those beloved best friends I rarely get to see these days (shout out Jules and Em!). The fact that I haven't seen very many people this summer hasn't really bothered me, because there aren't too many that I really wanted to see. I realized though, as I thought about the things that I needed to do before leaving and the people that I wanted to see, that some of those people who I categorized as classmates and acquaintances in high school had actually become my friends, I wanted to see them because I missed them and felt like we needed to say goodbye.

Kelly and Tayla were both people who I shared a lot of classes with over the years--probably since sixth grade. I don't remember meeting either of them or what sparked our friendship. We were probably thrown together as partners occasionally and maybe seated together in a seating assignment, I'm not sure. But at some point we became classmates that interacted, as opposed to those that don't. They both always thought it was fun to tease me--probably because it is. We would joke around and act like we disliked each other. The term 'best friend' was often thrown around with a sarcastic tone and a small sneer. But it was always important that through all the jokes they cracked, it was easy to differentiate them from the people that wanted to hurt me. They were never the people that made me run out to my car after school, tears streaming and Taylor Swift blasting. They were my friends.

At some point, in the mess that is high school, we became friends without ever realizing it. It took a little time of not seeing each other to realize that they had fallen into the category of "people I want to see again" while many others had been discarded into the "I could do without" pile and never thought of again. Summer began winding down and I started to realize that I hoped I would run into them so we could hang out. I realized that seeing them was actually important enough to text them and make plans, and so we did and so it was lovely.

As I get ready to go off to college in a new place where I don't know anyone, I've been thinking about the idea of making friends a lot. I've been asking myself how I'm going to do that and trying to think about how I've done it in the past. I reached a conclusion that I had never had to make friends before--because I've lived here forever and just always known everyone--but this conclusion is wrong. I've been making friends the entire time and never realized it, because it's such a natural part of life.

You meet a person and you have something in common. Maybe you have a shared friend, job or class. Things just grow from there. An inside joke arises and suddenly you have a topic of conversation. Obviously you send a friend request and make things Facebook official. When you see each other you smile, wave, say hello. They are no longer a stranger. You guys make plans. Things continue along this path and eventually, you realize that this is someone you want to continue to have in your life. This is a person you want to call your friend.

That thought makes me smile at the friendships I've acquired over the years and feel more confident about the ones that await me in Boston. I've made friends before, so why shouldn't I be able to do it again?

Shout out to my friends Kelly and Tayla, who I never
realized I became friends with.