I\u2019m a senior, and I\u2019m beginning to think about the fact that, no matter how passionately I cling to it, I am going to leave IMSA for the great big world beyond.\u00a0 Soon.\u00a0 To some of my classmates, this may seem like the most exciting thing in the world.\u00a0 They think that leaving everything behind and making something new of themselves is interesting \u2013 just a new challenge, nothing they can\u2019t handle.\u00a0 It just reminds me of two truths: one, I\u2019m a coward; and two, when I leave IMSA behind, I\u2019m also leaving all my friends.<\/p>\n
We know this.\u00a0 No matter how hard we could hypothetically try, it\u2019s not like we are going to end up in the same college, or even in the same part of the country, as our friends.\u00a0 Starting a new adventure in a new place means we\u2019re starting that adventure alone.\u00a0 The thing is, when I think about it in a certain way, or at a certain sleep-deprived time (we\u2019re talking 2-4 A.M. here), I realize it\u2019s not the friend<\/em>-friends that I\u2019m most scared of losing.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 I am going to miss my friends like crazy when I\u2019m no longer two doors down from them.\u00a0 But I\u2019m also afraid of losing the other friends \u2013 I\u2019ll call them the luck friends \u2013 because our friendship is so much more precarious.<\/p>\n When I say \u201cluck friend,\u201d I mean someone outside of what you would consider your friend group who you still interact with in a friendly way because of, well, luck.\u00a0 Luck friends are the people you sat with in math on the first day because you didn\u2019t have any friends in your section. \u00a0A luck friend is the person you smile and say hi to every day in the hallway because their next class is in the room you are vacating.\u00a0 A luck friend is the person you had an hour-and-a-half long conversation with when the SIR bus was late one day and your advisors work at the same place.\u00a0 Hell, a luck friend is the Sodexo worker who gives you an extra scoop of okra because they know you like it.\u00a0 Even the teachers whose offices you frequently occupy to complain about life in general, though they\u2019d probably hardly appreciate the term \u201cfriend,\u201d are luck friends.\u00a0 For the most part, these are the people you do not go out of your way to spend time with, to talk to, and to get to know.\u00a0 Life just sort of threw them at you in convenient moments, unsure of what exactly it was you’d do with them.<\/p>\n Think about it.\u00a0 You have luck friends.\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t you be sad if, for no particular reason, they disappeared?\u00a0 Next semester you won\u2019t pass the same person in the hallway or have the same people in your math class.\u00a0 Maybe the Sodexo worker will get a different job.\u00a0 Your SIR buddy will drop SIR because of the insane notebook checks and general SIR expectations (https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2014\/11\/07\/interest-in-sir-waning\/<\/a>).\u00a0 And you won\u2019t really know what to do.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s not like you\u2019re friend<\/em>-friends, or anything.\u00a0 You don\u2019t even have their phone number.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019re Facebook friends?<\/p>\n Herein lies the issue: In an attempt to maintain your friend group (*cough* clique) distinctions or simply an attempt to get more sleep, you\u2019ve never really acknowledged the small, cumulative positive effect these people have on your life.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to, and it\u2019s kind of awkward, and, well, it\u2019s not like you asked<\/em> to hang out with them.\u00a0 It just sort of happened.\u00a0 But for a while, there will be a small emptiness in your life where these people used to fit.\u00a0 Perhaps you won\u2019t even recognize this emptiness for what it is, but you will feel it.\u00a0 Your friend<\/em>-friends, you will talk to when you leave for college.\u00a0 You will Skype or call or Facebook, at least for a little while.\u00a0 But because of your inability to acknowledge your luck friends, you won\u2019t talk to them again.\u00a0 This is what saddens me.\u00a0 It would be awkward to keep in touch with some of these luck friends (I’m probably not going to call the Sodexo worker), but I think that, with everything they\u2019ve done for us, we should at least say goodbye properly when we leave.\u00a0 Acknowledging these relationships is important because, in some small way, our luck friends are important to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m a senior, and 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