Sisterhood: The Key to Surviving College
Hey Gypsies! Happy New Year! Ya girl is back and more ready than ever to focus on the blogging. I am almost done with college and towards the end of last quarter I just started getting really unmotivated, so I took a break and now I'm back with so many more ideas! As I stated before, being an upcoming college graduate, I have been thinking back on my journey throughout school. I have experienced lots of great times, along with some bad ones but that’s how life works. At the end of the day, I realized that there was one factor that was most important, I had friends by my side. Now my college experience as a whole as rarely been dramatic from my point of view; however, being there for my friends while they were going through extremely tough times has been really important to me.
College is a time for change. It’s a time when you’re transitioning from teenager to young adult. You stop being under your parent’s rules and you are on your own. In the beginning you may feel alone because many of us are moving from home, going to different cities, maybe even states, and don’t know anyone around. You’re leaving your comfort zone, leaving your friends that you see everyday and starting a brand-new journey. It can be a scary process. But then you meet this one person; and she becomes a friend, and she makes friends that she wants to introduce you to. This can be really good, or really bad. In my case, this was a really good. My very first college encounter was the day I went to orientation. I attend a fairly small art school, so they divided the upcoming freshman into groups based on their major: fashion, culinary, design. I am a fashion major so we all left to go upstairs to start some t-shirt dyeing. We’re all having conversation and passing around tie-dye, and this one girl and I hit it off immediately. Now when I left for school I was dead set on not making any friends. I was young, I did not want to get unfocused, I did not want to get caught up in any mess, I just had a really pessimistic outlook. Nevertheless, we hit it off and the second day of classes, we found out that we were in 2/3 of the same classes. Needless to say, we hung out a lot. I was reserved, she was a social butterfly, so she quickly made friends, while I just stayed to myself. One day, we’re standing around waiting for our school’s shuttle, and she starts talking to these other two girls, they seem cool and I decided to join in the conversation. As time goes on, I see these girls every now and then, we talk then go on about our days. One day on the shuttle, we realized that we stayed, literally 4-5 doors down from each other. I tell them they should come by sometime because as I stated, I’m kind of reserved and don’t like initiating things. One night, I’m sitting in my living room watching tv, just enjoying my time and I hear a knock at my door. Now my roommates weren’t the type to invite people over and I didn’t invite anyone over that day so I was confused about who it could be. I check the peep hole and see that it’s them with a whole bunch of art supplies. They come in, and we all just have a good time doing homework and talking. That was the start of my very first college “sisters”. As time went on, we maintained one of the most genuine, organic friendships I have ever had. Things happened, other people caused drama for us, but at the end of the day it was us vs. them. Being in a long-distance relationship, there would be times where I would be sad for days, but as soon as I got around my girls my mood would instantly change. We had so many different personalities but we all meshed really well. We have the emotional one who wore her feelings on her sleeve, we have the tough one who tried to hide her feelings but we all knew how she really felt, we have the super religious (semi-closeted) lesbian, then you have me, the quiet, chill one. We would all meet at my apartment, have group homework sessions, and help each other out with whatever work we were struggling with. There were times when we saw each other every single day for weeks on end. Two moved into my apartment, one slept on our couch for a while, and everything was just great. We were each other’s support system. Whether we needed a place to stay, food to eat, a ride somewhere, or even just an ear to listen, I always knew that I could go to them no matter what. They really changed my outlook on college and what to expect from it. With all that being said, I am really appreciative of everything I learned from my girls. While two of them no longer attend school with me, they are out there living their lives and we still make sure to keep in contact no matter how long it takes. Those are my girls for life. Every lesson I have learned through our friendship, I take into the current ones I have now. We learned together, we matured together. I love them. I have formed new friendships with different people throughout my time in school, but no matter what, I know who I started with. So shout out to my girls, y'all know who you are and ladies when you find you a good group of friends that are loyal, supportive, and non-judgmental, keep them close.
