As students reach the last four year stretch of school before college, groups of friends start to change. In middle school, friends were often determined by whomever was nice.

However, high school can be often be a place that begins to split friends apart based on likes and interests. This is done by the clubs we join, the classes taken, and sometimes something as simple of what lunch we have.

Before you know it, it’s junior year, and you haven’t seen much less spoken to the person you would tell everything to just a few years before.

But a dramatic change in social groups can be a good thing. Personally, it has allowed me to appreciate the wide variety of people that high school and the world has to offer. Everyone I meet allows me to develop a new aspect of my personality and figure out who I am and who I am going to be.

Limiting myself to my original friend group would be a wasted opportunity as I would miss out on the chance to build so many new relationships. Sometimes I think back to times spent with a childhood friend and wonder what it would be like if we were still acquainted today. And while it might be a little sad, I still have the memories to cherish while at the same time I look forward to  the new memories being made everyday that wouldn’t be possible without change.