You learn a lot when you go to college.

You learn that pulling an all-nighter means staying up
all night to
study
for a test you will then sleep through.

You learn to appreciate the taste of beer - the
cheapest of all
alcoholic
beverages.

You learn that you can roll out of bed 10 minutes
before class and go
to
class looking like shit - and no one will notice or
care.

You learn you really can do things for yourself
without your parents
looking over your shoulder - but you also learn you
never realized how
nice it was to have them there, just in case.

More than anything, however, you learn how much your
friends really
mean
to you. College friends come to mean a lot to you, but
they can never
compare to your friends from home.

Your friends from home teach you the meaning of
friendship during your
college years; because you are apart from them you
tend to express
your
feelings more - you learn how much these people truly
affect your
life.
You've got your best friend who exemplifies friendship
- she calls at
least once a week, sends email everyday, and even
sends you real
mail.
You
feel
like you never left each other... she still knows
everything about
you,
and even over the internet she can tell when something
is wrong. She
teaches
you that distance doesn't have to change a friendship
at all.

Then there is your other best friend.
She rarely calls or writes and she doesn't do the
email thing. At
times
you think she has forgotten about you... until you
hear from her. You
hear
from her for the first time in almost two months and
nothing has
changed.
You
are still you and she is still her - even though you
never as close as
ever, you are still the best of friends. You find
yourself expressing
to
her just how much she means to because you realize it
now more than
ever.
She teaches you that true friends are friends in the
soul... no
separation can tear them apart.

Then there are those friends that you sort of lost
touch with those
last
few months of highschool and during the summer. You
were busy, they
were
busy... but somehow, the magic of email has brought
you
closer together than you ever were in four years at
the same school.
You
share secrets, heartaches, and joys... it's another
person who cares
about you as long as you will care about them too.
Away from all the
ettiness
of high school, you've finally formed an adult
relationship... and you
realize just how great a friend this person is.
Suddenly, the people that you thought for sure you
would lose touch
with
in college are the ones you keep in closest contact
with - and you
miss
them
more than you ever thought possible.

Sadly enough, there are also the friends that you were
closest to in
high school who drift too far for you to hold on to.
You've both
changed and
suddenly you don't have much to say to each other.

But these people teach you a lesson too - they make
you value the
others,
the ones you have stayed close to, that much more.
These distant
friends,
though you miss them when you rarely think of them,
show you who your
forever friends really are - and they make you
appreciate those
forevers
much more.

College is rough. College severs some bonds and
solidifies others...it
puts a distance between you and the ones you love
before. But it
teaches you
so much. It forces your real friends to come to the
front, while the
rest
take their places in the shadows of your memories.

In college you lose some people - but through real
friendship and the
strength of the soul (which is where real friends join
as one) you
keep
the ones you will need most in your life. You learn
the real meaning
of
the
quote: If you press me to say why we were friends, I
can say no more
than
it was because she was her and I as me.

The people who fit that mold are your forever
friends.So send this on
to
those forever friends. Send it to the ones you keep in
touch with. And
send it to the ones you don't - just to tell them how
much you
appreciate
all
they did for you.

And send it to your new college friends, who hopefully
will someday
too
be your forever friends. People say true friends must
always hold
hands, but
true friends don't need to hold hands because they
know the other hand
will always be there.

You've got to dance like nobody's watching, and love
like it's never
going to hurt...