Multiple people have told me that “college is the best time of my life.”

Usually, I think that maybe these people were going to school to party or maybe they were so smart that all they simply had to do was show up on test day. However, I have another theory. They have blocked out the stress of school projects, exams, extra-curricular activities, sport practices and the side jobs that barely pay rent. What they remember are only the very best parts of college.

Although I am only a junior, my three best friends are graduating, so I cannot help but think back to all of the memories we have created in a legacy of stories.

When I think of college, this is what I remember: The time we sat on our couch after class and ate the entire bag of Mountain Trail Mix; when we tried skinny dipping in three different knee-high, ice-cold creeks before realizing that creeks are not where people go skinny dipping; when we tried skinny dipping for the second time in a lake, but could not because there was a monster in the black water; when I drank Fireball for the for the first time on my 21st birthday and you helped carry me up the stairs; when we explored an underground tunnel.

I remember those times people asked if we were drunk and we were stone-cold sober; those 3 a.m. nights of studying and cursing our procrastination; the time I fell on the floor laughing for reasons my roommate will not let me say; when we licked our ice cream cones and talked about penises as an old man walked by; the time we ate pancakes together at the breakfast table; when we went to a smoky bonfire and you first kissed your now-fiancé.

I remember our movie night at someone else’s house because we did not own a TV; when you put pepper spray on our popcorn and accidentally sprayed our host’s eye; the multiple times we tried to dissect the male brain; the Wednesdays we wore pink even though only one of us liked pink; our shopping trip where we bought very cute clothes and vitamins.

I remember when we cried for our sick family members and a heart-break boy; when we laid on the roof and looked at the stars we could not see; the moments that cannot even be quantified because they were filled with nothing but delirious laughter. When I think of college, this is what I remember.

And yet, there is so much more — the quick conversations between classes, the jokes before bed, the mornings where we screamed “bye” as we ran out the door 5 minutes after our class had already started. How do you describe these moments to anyone? They are insignificant to everyone except for the people who have lived them.

As all three of you (my best friends) graduate, know that you will not be able to get rid of me. I am coming with you to North Carolina, to graduate school and to a middle school teaching job. I know this because you will be staying with me, too. All three of you are now ingrained in my laugh, you are the memories that live in my heart and you will forever be riding on my shoulders. When we meet people, they never really leave us. We carry them to the next place we go. That is why old people are so hunched over with curved backs; they are carrying decades of the people they have loved.

Even though we may grow apart in the next 60-some years, just know that I will be carrying you on my shoulders everywhere I go.

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