Pre-requisites

As my departure from Ohio reaches the T-12ish house mark, I have tried spending more and more time with my friends. As I've grown up, my definition of friends has quite changed. I remember when my grandparents use to laugh at my loose definition of what a friend was during junior high. Since I've always been a believer in quality over quantity, I have usually kept my groups small. During the last few days, I have spent so much time reminiscing with friends. It's led me to wonder how I've been making friends over the last few years, since I'll have to start all over again.

In high school, I had move right before freshman year, so I pretty much had a restart. My few friends were based on the people I had classes with. Luckily, with loads of honors and AP classes, I was able to develop my small group of invaluable friends. My criteria then changed from playing tag to being able to challenge and support me. If I found out that you have not voted for me for student government... I kid. My friends were well chosen, and I couldn't have asked for a better group. While high school drama was still present among my friends, I was able to mostly navigate my way through.

During college, most of my friends could be categorized into three-ish groups. I was super fortunate to find Running Club. The thing about running is that for some reason, it also makes people have this crazy passion for whatever they're doing. It's amazing the kind of conversations you can have with your running partner. I have had some of the funniest, most fun, and deepest conversations on those runs. The other major group of friends came from those in my dorm freshmen and sophomore year. Especially during freshman year, I found a couple of friends during my spring quarter that I will surely have for the rest of the year. The kind of friends who grow with you. We went from staying up until 4am and watching The Office to happy hours after work and deep discussions about life. I can't wait for our Google Hangout on Friday! The last group of friends are my friends from work. They make waking up and going to the office every day lots of fun (work is very interesting of course!).

Now, I'll be leaving Ohio, starting a new life with new friends.