Autumn

When I was in high school, I had the best of friends. There was nine of us, Kayla, Kayla, Michaela, Kirstin, Melissa, Sunni, Amy, Casey and Kylynn. Most of us had grown up together, developing our friendships from kindergarten to graduation. We grew up together, survived puberty together, developed our lives together. We were there for each other in moments of change, fear and growth.

After graduation, we all went our separate ways. Sunni and Casey went to the same college and became roommates. Michaela and Kirstin did the same. One of the Kayla’s and Amy went to neighboring schools in the same town and visited each other often. All of them stayed in the Northwest; Washington, Montana and Oregon. After graduation, I boarded a plane and flew to Florida, all alone. I left my best friends on the opposite corner of the country.

My first two years at Flagler College were rocky but exciting, full of surprises, mistakes and realizations. I made friends with the first people I met and clung to them. We became inseparable and had wild adventures in the dorms throughout freshman year. They were good friends, maybe even great ones, but none of them even approached being as close to me as the girls I had left at home.

The following year, my new friends and I found a house and moved in together. Sophomore year was filled with even more mistakes and mishaps. We were growing up and clearly beginning to grow apart. I never bothered to become close with any of them because I still believed I had best friends and didn’t need more, I wouldn’t dare replace the girls I grew up with. At the end of sophomore year I realized that I wasn’t happy living alone in Florida and depending on girls four thousand miles away to be my best friends. I couldn’t call them and tell them about my life when they hadn’t met any of the people I was talking about. I couldn’t give them advice when I wasn’t experiencing their life with them.

Junior year I went out on a limb and moved out of my roommates house. I was back in Montana for the summer and didn’t have anyone to live with in the fall when I returned. Days crawled by and I tried to not stress about how few friends I had and my lack of living situation. Out of the blue, I talked to a friend in Florida one day. He told me that his girlfriend, a girl I knew by acquaintance, was looking for a new roommate too. We began talking and we decided to take the chance and live together. Throughout the summer we talked only about housing, communicating through texting and face book. She found a house for us and I mailed her appropriate amounts of money to cover my share of the expenses. When I returned to Florida, Autumn and I greeted each other awkwardly. We had communicated so much throughout the three months of summer but we never had officially spoken face to face.

Weeks turned into months and before we knew it, the awkwardness had melted away and we did everything together. We partied and drank, watched movies and cried over guys. We cooked dinner together every night and developed a routine. We took care of each others dogs and soon first semester had flown by. Autumn spent Christmas in Mexico and I sat alone on my couch through the holidays, all alone. She brought me back a bottle of Mexican Tequila and we enjoyed it together. Over spring break, she drove me to the airport and picked me up a week later. I jabbered on and on in the car during the ride home. I told her all about my friends from home who I had spent the break with. I began to realize, Autumn had somehow become so much more important to me than my closest friends. They remained my best friends but after three years apart from them, I was losing track, losing interest, growing apart from my childhood friends.

Autumn will graduate in six days. Despite my begging, she applied to multiple jobs and internships in different states. She will leave me in July and I’ll have to move in with someone else, and develop another friendship. I’ll always talk to Autumn, our friendship has become so strong we will surely be lifelong friends. But despite her leaving, and despite our closeness, the way we bonded in just nine short months, she taught me how easy and fun it is to make new friends. She is so very different from my friends at home. She has become my best friend in my adult life. Though I will never leave behind my childhood friends, Autumn has taught me about new levels of friendship and what they entail at an older age, and I’m so very thankful.