“Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than government. It is almost the equal of family. Never forget that.”
– Don Corleone to Johnny Fontane
(In context, the Don was telling Johnny, his famous actor/singer godson about the importance of friendship because Johnny was always running around with different people and had no one reliable to help him but the Godfather.)
As I read the Don’s words in the novel, I immediately reflected on my friends and how I have been interacting with them since starting college.
Going to college, away from friends, some that you’ve known your whole life, is kind of scary. I have definitely noticed a difference in the kind of friends I’ve made in college so far versus the friends I have from home. Luckily for me, two of my best friends from high school go to Penn State, too. However, the enormous size of campus and our busy schedules have prevented our getting together as often as we had at home.
I definitely love my new friends here at school. My floormates and I have become really close. But, because we have all only known each other for five months or so, the friendships at school aren’t comprable to the ones I have with the friends I’ve known since kindegarten. Has anyone else noticed that?
I’ve seen many of my friends with older siblings grow closer to their siblings when their siblings leave for college. (Partly because I have no older siblings) College has made me feel even closer to my friends at home. My high school best friends and I make a point to get lunch together once a week and go out together once a weekend. I feel blessed to have a balance of new friends and old friends at school.
(Still best friends hanging out in college)
But I have definitely come to really value my old friends moreso since coming to school. I can be moody and awkward and weird around my old friends and they don’t question it. They care about everything I have to say with full understanding of what I’ve been through and what certain things mean to me. They are there for me when I am stressed beyond belief. And I love being able to bring them Nutella when their boyfriends dump them, despite only speaking to them on a weekly basis.
I certainly love my new friends and they are there for me, too, as I am for them. However, it is still so different. Thus, I value both old and new friends, but my appreciation of old friends has grown, especially after reading those wise words from the Godfather.