3 Reasons College Friendships Are Unlike Any Others You'll Ever Make

The gift of college friends lasts long after the "good 'ole days" are over.

For many people, including myself, the college years are like no other season in a person’s life. Don’t be mistaken: There were certainly weighty decisions that had to be made. Stress and drama made predictable appearances. But mostly, college was where I grew all the way up. I started out as a big kid and finished as a young adult. The in-between was nothing short of magical.

With my oldest child is on the cusp of starting the college application process, rarely in all my days have I experienced such a mishmash of emotions. His absence will leave a gaping hole in our home, but I also know the sweetness of the pool that kid is about to jump into, and all the friends about to be made.

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I am convinced that there are no friendships in life quite like those of our college years. While it’s tempting to think the college social scene is special because of all of the wonderful things students have these days—designer dorms, seemingly endless wardrobes, and plenty of parties—I personally attribute the strongest ties between college friends to the things you experience together during a time when you don't have everything. The best memories don't come from a land of plenty, but are made when figuring things out as you go, without much of the securities you strive for as you get older.

As a former college student and current mother, here are 3 reasons that college friendships become perhaps the most cherished and longest-lasting of all.

Related: 60 Cute Best Friend Quotes About True Friendship

You didn't need to make plans

One Friday morning in the fall of my freshman year, a relatively new friend sat down next to me in class. “Got any plans this weekend?” she asked. “Nothing major,” I replied. “Wanna go on a road trip after class?” she said with a grin. "Absolutely!" I replied with no hesitation. College is a place where spontaneity thrives, and it's easy to make memories without too much effort.

If a college student with a full course load goes to every single class for an entire week, there's still an enticing amount of discretionary hours at their disposal—even without playing hooky! That is countless hours for people hang out together in their dorm rooms, mess around on the guitar in the quad, chat with roommates late into the night, and, without much effort at all, build lifelong friendships. Being able to live, eat, and breathe with your friends serves as rich soil for the roots of friendships to reach deep, even if that soil may sometimes look downright silly on the surface.

You didn't have any money

Once upon a time, on the west side of Highway 31 in Birmingham, Alabama, we'd linger in the parking lot at Krispy Kreme, watching the “Hot Now” sign flashing red in the window. When the clock struck midnight, the donuts that hadn’t sold were placed neatly into boxes to be thrown out. An employee would then strategically stack the unsold boxes of donuts on the concrete slab just next to the dumpster. He could have tossed them in the trash, but he was onto us students. We'd grab those dozens of doughnuts and share them with all of our friends back on campus. College—which is expensive enough as it is—tends to be a time of pinching pennies for students, partly by way of pulling off ridiculous shenanigans with friends to avoid spending money.

Too much cash can kill the college experience, if you ask me. It paves the way to normal, predictable, regular living and at most life stages, that is most certainly the way to go. But in college, a group of friends can have just enough ingenuity and moxie to make any money-free situation incredibly fun. What looks like stress in other life phases doesn't feel quite as harsh during college, largely because you're going through it together with your friends.

Related: 35 Powerful Bible Verses About Friendship To Celebrate Your Loved Ones

You didn't always have good sense

In the winter of 1997, my husband Jim and his college buddies decided to pile into somebody’s old Suburban and drive to Colorado from Nashville for a ski trip. They had a free place to stay and a sense of adventure. What could go wrong? However, when the skiing was done and the journey home had commenced, the car broke down irreparably, and there were no rental cars were available. A half-a-dozen Southern college boys, not phased by losing their only ride home to Tennessee, rented a moving truck and arrived back at campus unscathed, with nothing but memories.

A problem was presented, and an unconventional solution that perhaps only a "senseless" group of college kids could find was, indeed, found. Stories like this, although lacking "good sense," weave tight bonds between friends as they finish growing up. Long after college is over, the gift of strong college friendships last much longer. A college reunion with old friends reminds us that those stories are just waiting to be re-told.

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