I can’t believe we only have a little over a month left of this semester. It seems like we just started yesterday, but alas, here we are. Normally all I do is look forward to the semester ending, but every semester, especially this one, I find myself wanting it to last just a little longer.

For the old guy I have become and not graduating on time, each semester that passes by means more and more of my friends will be leaving Wayne and moving on with their lives.

Two of my roommates and best friends I have made here are moving away soon. Some of my other good friends have already left. Obviously I am happy for them, but you never know how things will work out in life, and if you will be as close as you were seeing each other every day.

In honor of them, here are the top five reasons your college friends are your best friends.

1. You get to choose your college friends. In high school, especially a small school like I went to, if you dislike someone you will have to spend much of your time with or around that person. This does happen in college, but you aren’t in the same building with that person for a minimum of eight hours a day. In college you actively choose which people you hang around, and it is because you genuinely like them.

2. Your college friends end up knowing you better than anyone. My high school friends know me pretty well, but I live hours away from them now. Many of us have evolved into different people from who we were in high school. Your college friend don’t judge you on the past, and chooses to be friends with the person you are now. I live with most of my best friends, and you have a different relationship and understanding of someone once you have lived together and spent every day with.

3. Having no rules allows more room to grow. This one holds pretty true for me, as I had a curfew and had to be home early every night. But being able to do what you want and be where you want gives you a huge advantage in meeting and becoming great friends with people in college. You will find like-minded people in the places you go.

4. They become your grown-up friends. Being away from home you start to lose contact with the people you once were very close with. This is only natural and happens to everyone.

Sorry freshmen but that is just the way it goes. Whether it’s because you changed as a person or the distance a lot of people drift away. This can happen with college friends and it does, but we all have those friends you make plans with to stay close or even keep living together after you leave college.

5. They become your second family. My roommates and I say we are a family all the time. Not so much now for me because I’m old, but maybe for some freshmen, you start to struggle with homesickness. Your friends you make here in college are going through the same feelings and can relate with you.