If you’re like me, you’ve stumbled into this unusual energy-filled community called Pepperdine and fallen in love. I’m not talking about the emotion that arises from finding your soulmate — although that may be the case for some — but rather about the feeling that stems from discovering people you cannot imagine living without: the ones who can interpret the expression on your face in an instant, who wait for you to watch a YouTube video because you’re the only one who will understand the humor, who remind you of home even if it’s hundreds of miles away.
Upon arriving at Pepperdine, we promised our high school friends we’d stay in contact. Freshman-year experiences were shared with the friends we met on campus as well as those back home. Reunions during Christmas break were the perfect combination of reminiscing and updating. We would take time to describe the personalities and oddities of our new friends, in an attempt to introduce them to our old ones. Coming back for another semester was bittersweet — our Pepperdine reunions were filled with anticipation for the upcoming months, yet no one quite understood us like the ones we left in Minnesota, Texas, New York or Illinois.
Then, one day, everything changed. I can’t pinpoint the moment exactly or determine the factors that led up to it, but I realized the friends I’ve made over the past three years at Pepperdine know me just as well, if not better, than the ones with whom I braved high school halls. Maybe it’s because we were all thrown into college life, expected to fend for ourselves, be our own advocates and discover our own sets of values and beliefs. We were able to choose who we wanted to surround ourselves with, without preconceived ideas of who was “cool.”
I’ve come to appreciate the friendships I’ve made at Pepperdine more than I ever imagined I could. The odd assortment of ambitious, adventurous people fits me. Granted, there are days when everyone is wrapped up in their own schedules, just trying to survive. But we survive it together. We find the people who will whisk us away from our textbooks and overbooked agendas to go surfing, to go to a concert, to eat dinner or to drive down PCH at midnight because we’ll only be able to see those LA lights for so long.
We need to take time to acknowledge those who remind us to enjoy life. We are surrounded by such an astonishing amount of incredible people that we often dismiss what we have.
There have been findings that say we change half of our friends every seven years. If that’s accurate, we may only have our current friends for a few more years. We may plan for the friendships we have found at Pepperdine to last a lifetime; we joke about having those people in our weddings or by our sides saying we’ll be single forever. If we want them there for more than seven years, learn to appreciate them. Compliment them on their crooked smile, their deep, obnoxious laugh and their crazy antics. Tell them they’ve made your day easier simply by being there. Love them, not because they’re there, but because they’ve chosen to be.
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Follow Katrina Kirsch on Twitter: @Katrina_Kirsch
