Until We Meet Again: Essay About Friends

Just before the summer of my freshman year in college, I experienced a time where I felt lost and alone in my own town. I was without almost all of my best friends in the entire world. They had all decided what school they were going to be attending at the end of their junior year in high school. At the time, college seemed like it was so far away in time that I wouldn’t have to worry about it, but the time snuck up on me and before I knew it, it was their moving day. 

We had gotten to know each other extremely well in high school and spent almost every day with each other through our four years at Freeburg High School. My friend group consisted of Travis Bergkoetter, Connor Diecker, Adam Haas, Ryan Leadley, Brock Loesche, Landon Miles, Bly Range, Carson Smith, and Nicholas Yeager. The only ones that are still in the area are Travis and Carson, and fortunately for me, they both go to Southwestern Illinois College. In fact, Travis plays baseball here and Carson and I are co-workers at a small grocery store in Freeburg. Connor went to Bethel University in Tennessee to play college basketball. I met him when I was a freshman and we started out on a bad path because I would call him out if he was acting like a jerk and he didn’t appreciate that very much.

Adam went to Alabama University and is probably one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. I met him freshman year and he would go out of his way to make sure you were okay and safe. Ryan went to Kansas State University. I met him the summer before freshman year and we’ve had our ups and downs because he decided to date my sister so I was unhappy with him for a while, but they broke up and we are back to being really close friends. I am planning a trip to go see him in Kansas in November. Brock went to Auburn University. Brock is best friends with Connor, so he didn’t like me very much at first either, but we bonded over our love of sports and got closer as the years went on.

Landon went to Washington University in Saint Louis. I met him the same day I met Ryan. Landon had some major trust issues because of his home life, so I swore he hated me for years, but by around junior year, I knew we were good friends. Bly went to Purdue and I will be talking about him a little later. Nicholas went to the University of Lindenwood St. Charles. He comes back to Freeburg every once in a while, but his girlfriend in extremely clingy and she demands he spend every free second of his life with her. Other than Landon and Nicholas, all of these colleges are over 4 hours away. There was one week this summer where they all were leaving in the span of a few days. All I did that week was spend as much time as I could with them before their big day. We went to a few parties, went bowling, caught a couple movies, and went mini-golfing.

The first one to leave was Bly, who I was the closest to. He was my best friend out of everyone because we could relate to each other more than we could to the rest of the friend group and we just spent most of our time with each other. He was scheduled to leave his house at 3:00 in the morning so he could get to Purdue at his 8:00 move in time. Bly and I went out to eat at our local Mexican restaurant, Tequilas, before he had to finish packing for the night. At around 2:45 in the morning, I snuck out of my house to go see him one last time before he left. I got there as he was loading his belongings into his car and I went over there to help him out and finish loading up the car. We sat on his porch and talked for a few minutes before he had to leave and we hugged each other and cried like babies. 

On my ride home, there was only one song I could think of that represented how I was feeling knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see my best friend until November for Thanksgiving break. I played “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth on repeat on my drive back home. This song was on the movie “Fast and Furious 7: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack”. The song was released in 2015 and was categorized as a Hip-Hop/Rap song. The song was put in the movie as a tribute to actor Paul Walker who died in a car accident while filming the movie. There are several lyrics that speak true about my friendship with Bly.

When the song says, “Everything I went through you were standing there by my side”, I can relate to it because Bly and I have been through a lot of hardships together. I was there for him whenever his “on and off” girlfriend would continually break up with him, and he was there for me when my aunt died from stage four cancer and when I was lost and alone at the beginning of my high school days. Another lyric in the song that I can personally relate to is when Wiz Khalifa says, “A friendship turn to a bond and that bond will never be broken and the love will never get lost”. I can connect myself with this line of the song because Bly and I have been so close for so long and just because he is going to a school in Indiana, it doesn’t mean we will stay out of touch. In fact, Carson and I might be able to escape Illinois to go and see him at his school. We might even be able to get tickets to a sporting event there because neither Carson or I have ever seen the Purdue basketball court in person. When Bly gets back from his school year, everything will be back to normal between us, as if he had never left.