Here’s to the Friends I Made and Now Get to Watch Graduate

This is a love letter to the friends I have made while being at UMass, to the ones that I now get to watch graduate and take the next steps of their life journey. It is hard to have such close friends in a different grade than you. I joke with them, asking them to fall behind on credits or take an extra year just so they can stay with me one more year. However, I know that they are ready, and I know that my friends are going to make such a positive impact on the world. I have found community and family in the people I have met, and the memories I have made will live with me for the rest of my life. 

If you are graduating this year, know how proud the people around you are. What you have done is a meaningful accomplishment and one that has not been easy. You have dealt with adversity, like COVID, finals, papers, and speeches, and came out winning. I could not be more proud of the friends I consider family. At the end of May, when they get to walk the stage and close this chapter of their lives, I will be screaming and shouting in celebration, knowing that they are so deserving of that diploma. 

So here’s to the late-night laughs, the Wednesday wine nights, and the long drives with windows down and music up. Here’s to the funny inside jokes and the Antonios and Subway trips. Here’s to the way strangers turned into sisters, confidants, and partners in crime. Here’s to the way you all have permanently altered my life for the better. Here’s to you. 

Friendship is so important to me. To find people who I can be myself with; I am so blessed to know the amazing seniors I do. Change is hard, but this change is refreshing and exciting. Looking forward, I already can’t wait to host my graduating best friends back for some weekends in Amherst and feel the deja vu of the life we live now. Although separation is upon us, I know that we will always be connected in life. 

This period of accomplishment for them makes me grateful for the time left in college and excited for the day I am in the same position as them. Because they are a year older than me, graduation will be extra bittersweet for me this year. Although I selfishly wish they could stay forever, I am so thankful to say I have met some of my future bridesmaids. So again, here is to you. To my amazing, kind, intelligent, and funny friends. I am so proud of you and can not wait to see your future. Thank you for being my sense of family. Here is to you!!! 

​​Can’t get enough of HC UMass Amherst? Be sure to follow us on Instagram, listen to us on Spotify, like us on Facebook, and read our latest Tweets!