Are you a smart and savvy pre-collegiette looking for answers to some of your most personal questions about college? You know, the ones about boys, classes, roommates and parties that your school’s guidance office can’t help you with? Jen is here to answer those questions! Whatever your concern, she’ll do her best to help you so you can make sure you don’t just survive college, but rock it!
How do you deal with being away from all of your high school friends? I'm currently a senior at a boarding school, so I live with my friends and they are like my second family. Have you been able to keep your high school friendships alive? –Sarah
Sarah,
Usually when I think of boarding schools, I’m reminded of Zoey 101, so I hope yours is just as cool! If you’re anything like Zoey, you probably have some pretty great friends – ones you won’t want to lose when you leave for college.
When it comes to staying close with your friends from high school, I’ve founded that technology nowadays is super helpful. We have all sorts of ways to stay in touch with our friends from all around the world – Skype, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Facebook, the works – so it makes going away to school a bit easier knowing you can still be connected.
Even though all of these apps and sites are a huge help, the key to maintaining high school friendships in college is this: being intentional. College life can be very busy, and trying to manage your time and balance all of your commitments is stressful, so you need to make it a point to set time aside to catch up with friends. To make sure you give them the same time and respect you would if you saw them in person, try and get all of your homework done and complete any other assignments you need to do before you plan on speaking to them. When you do this, you’ll give your friends your full attention and get the most out of your short amount of (digital) time together. If you start to feel as if you don’t have much in common now, since you’ll all have different classes and professors, maybe you can bond over similar #collegeproblems. It’s comforting to vent over how annoying 8 a.m. lectures are, how much reading you need to do and how you always end up turning to a Netflix binge instead!
You can also start planning fun activities with your hometown friends for when you see them over your school breaks, if that makes you feel better during the times when you’re really missing them. This way when you go home on your breaks, you’ll be able to make the most of the short amount of time you’ll get to spend with them. Hello to froyo and Starbucks dates and jamming out to Five Seconds of Summer on full blast!
I also want to remind you that you’re going to meet a ton of cool people in college. It’s a time filled with new experiences and exciting events, so you’ll be able to meet more friends before you know it, and they’ll become your third family. You seem like you value your relationships since you asked me this question in the first place, so as long as you keep that same attitude when you head to college, you’ll be fine. Best of luck!