Keep 'em Close.

Did you ever get hear this from your teachers or parents when you were in high school?

"Once you get out of college, you're going to meet new friends who will replace the ones you have now!"

Or at least something along the lines of losing touch with your old friends?  I know I did.  I heard it from both my parents and some teachers.  In high school, I never thought that would be true.  I seriously had some pretty cool friends.  Around my senior year, I seriously had so many friends that I would converse with daily.  Maybe it was just because the school I went to was so small, you practically would know everybody within a year.  

Anyway, I remember reading through my senior yearbook and my memories book a few weeks ago, and I read all of the comments my friends gave me.

"Good luck at UT! Keep in touch!"

"I'm so glad I'm such a close friend to you! Never lose contact of me!"

"Stay close and let's hang out often next year!"

I'll be polite to you here and stop, but the list does go on and on.  Out of these people who told me these things, guess how many times I have talked to them in my years in college? If I could give you a reasonable number, I'd say 10.  In the past three years, I've said words to these people (in whole!) about 10 times.

Honestly, out of all the people in my graduating class, I only talk to one person, and that's my best friend Arron.  Out of Smithville, I talk to a handful of people.  What my teachers and my parents told me were undeniably true.  

The people I've met in college have been amazing.  It is truly an outstanding feeling to know that almost everyone you know is intelligent in their own way.  Take for instance, band.  In Smithville, not everyone was exactly coherent with playing their instrument or reading music.  Not many people had the desire to play, nor did they have much desire to practice.  In college, it's different.  People understand rhythms, notes, how to play, different methods of playing, different styles of playing, how to play different instruments; just everything! People here have a passion to play, and it is just incredible.

I've met so many incredible people here.  It's just phenomenal.  I can't explain the feeling until you experience it for yourself.  Of course, this isn't to say that I'm not friends with those back from high school, because I am.  Again, there are just a small handful of people (like the ones who have subscribed to my blog) that I keep in contact with because they are true friends to me.  Despite distance, despite the past, despite collegiate passion, despite whatever, we still stick together.  And that in itself is pretty amazing.

Take-home lesson of the day: Keep those who endure through everything with you, close.

This would be a good time to reference a blog post made by my friend, Cheryl.  She had a post today that talked about the same thing in a sense, so I'd advise you to go read it! Here's a link to the post.

Until next time,

Corey