My cousin graduated yesterday.
Honestly, I felt so extremely old, although we’re the same age. Exactly the same age, that year of college really changes things. She still has her cliques and her scattered friends. Her groups and lunch lines and afterschool nothingness. Her best friends and boyfriends, her AP books and SAT scores. Her fake smiles and friend she doesn’t actually really like.
I didn’t realize how much you learn being away from home. There are no more groups and high school power struggles. You don’t really come back to the same people, even if you do - it’s not the same closeness you had before. If anybody thinks that college would be the same as high school, I think they make it that way.
For me, my life is definitely far from what it was in high school.