Leaving your best friends

I don’t know where to start. I’ve been staring at a blank screen for 20 minutes now trying to think how to start this post about the end of my freshman year.

My final column for The Globe was a 400-odd-word thank you to everyone that helped me this semester. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone that I met this year and everyone from home that supported me this year. I guess I’ll start by extending that column. Let’s just see where this goes.

I met a lot of really cool people this year. I was bored a couple of Sundays ago, or maybe I was trying to find a reason to procrastinate. Either way. I compiled a list of the people that I met this year. Not just people I said hey to, but a list of people that I had conversations - more than small talk – with. It was an easy list to make and it stretched over four columns on one sheet of lined paper.

That’s just the people that I got to know this year and had at least a handful of conversations with. The list expands to three pages front and back at least if I include just the people that I ran into over the past year.

I then took the four-column list and put an asterisk next to names of those who I legitimately got to know. There were a lot of asterisks.

I was going to highlight names that were marked with asterisks to narrow it down to my best friends that I made this year, but I didn’t like choosing and not choosing, so I kept it at that.

The list put a lot in perspective for me. It not only showed me a long list of people that I met, but a long list of people that I really cared about that I met only this year. I care about these people a lot. And the cool thing is, I think they care about me. There are a couple handfuls of people who actually care about me and who I care about a lot at Point Park. I never expected to make the close friends that I did.

I never knew that I could have this many friends at once. Friends. Not acquaintances. I made a lot of those too, but I made a lot of legitimate friendships this year. I never knew it was possible to like so many people so much. We root for each other to succeed in and out of the classroom, we cheer each other up when we’re feeling down, we know when one of us is having a bad day and we all care a lot for each other.

Our last elevator ride
in Thayer 

We all know that if we need anything to ask. We all know that if one of us is being stupid, we’ll get told. We aren’t afraid to tell each other when the other is being an idiot or is about to make a bad choice. We watch out for each other, support each other, make fun of each other and love each other.

I found my second family at Point Park.

They’re a mix of people. My Point Park family is a combination of future broadcasters, journalists, PR specialists, marketers, dancers, actors, doctors, event planners, supreme leaders of the world, and so much more.

This is my second family at Point Park. Even if somebody is not in a certain “friend group” of mine, they’re still family. I’m friends with people who despise each other for whatever reason (stupid reasons, mostly). I’m friends with people who are acquaintances with each other. Not everybody has to be best friends with everybody, but I consider a handful of people at Point Park my best friends.

I’ve never really been involved with group text messages before this year. Those are sometimes annoying, especially when you’re in class and two people are having their own conversation about Kanye West in a group chat and it won’t stop setting your phone off, but sometimes really fun.

I can’t count the number of nights that somebody would come over to ask my roommate or me a simple question and five hours later, it was 3 or 4 in the morning. Those long nights of either
exploring or just sitting around chatting and listening to music are what college is all about. It’s what friends are all about.

I’m going to miss these people over the summer. I’m going to miss some of them who are never coming back.

Kevin is transferring to Penn State and on to bigger and better things with photography. He was an interesting dude and we had our share of fun experiences together.

Devon

Devon is moving back to Dallas, Texas and won’t be back next year. She is taking a year off school for personal reasons and hopes to possibly return for junior year. The number of adventures that Devon and I had this year is too high to count. “Thursday Night Adventures” always included Devon. I starred in one of her Production 1 films and assisted with another. Devon, Alex and I spent
countless nights staying up way later than we should be talking, watching weird videos and listening to Motown Christmas music. I will miss Devon. A lot. The worst part is that I don’t know when/if I’ll see her again. That’s not fun. I said goodbye to Devon multiple times the day before and the day that I left school to go back to Butler. When I actually pulled out, she texted me as I was two blocks away and asked if I left yet because she wanted to say a final goodbye. I made my dad turn around and go back to say goodbye to Devon.

Amanda

Amanda is transferring to IUP. She was my best friend at Point Park. I ate more meals with Amanda than I did all of my other friends combined. I’m not exaggerating. I’ll miss going up to the 15th floor to creepily greet her as she turned the corner to walk to the café. I’ll miss having her borrow my calculator for her math tests because she forgot hers at home or sending her pictures of my math
book. I’ll miss our random adventures around Pittsburgh. We walked to and from the South Side one day because she needed to buy a lot of art supplies from a specific art store and she didn’t want to go alone. She never really used any of the art supplies. I’ll miss explaining to her what the different bridges and rivers are. I’ll miss her rants about Point Park and hearing about the letters she’s written to the administration. Those were always entertaining. I’m going to miss Amanda.

I’m going to miss the close friends that I made at Point Park over the summer, but I’ll see them again in August, which can’t come soon enough. I’ll miss floor 7 in Thayer Hall. From Alexa’s pounding on my door to Alex’s Pitt adventure stories to Casey’s yelling to me and Justine’s Starbucks trips to randomly wandering into Noel Davina and Marissa’s room to listening to Morgan and Caitlin sing and so much more, I’m going to miss Pittsburgh and Point Park. I’m going to miss these people.

They’re great and are going to do great things someday. Thayer 7 will forever be my second family. The friends that I made this past year are my second family. I love them all and can’t wait to see them all again.

Thank God for the Internet.

Because why not?

Josh