“You and your friends are very lucky to have found each other.” My father texted me this shortly after he and my mother drove home from Parents’ Weekend 2013. They had treated me and some of my ladies to a lovely dinner the night before. There were only two ways to interpret this message: 1. You have found a great core group of girls and should feel very thankful. 2. You are all so damn crazy it is a literal miracle that you have found people that are willing to put up with you for extended periods of time. Two very poignant (and accurate) points.

Given that I am currently suffering from a life-threatening condition called “Graduating In May,” I wanted this article to be special. Instead of writing about one of my usual areas of interest (boys), I am dedicating this to the only thing that really matters at the end of the day: friendship (cue “that is so cheesy” vomiting noises).

It’s true though – above all else, when I leave this weird little cesspool of a community that we’ve all grown to know and love, it won’t matter what the score of the hockey game was or what some random boy texted me at 3 a.m. one night. What will matter are the lifelong friendships I have developed with a bunch of truly incredible women (and men!): friendships that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

My friends have seen me at my best (the legendary semester that was Fall 2012) and my absolute worst (vomiting leftover eggs benedict from Quacks into my shower caddy), and they have loved and supported me through it all. I like to think I’ve done the same (because I’m fabulous). Yes, we do fight from time to time, but we work it out in the end every time.

Sometimes I wonder what it is that makes us so great together. A favorite theory of mine is the “crazy flock” – you know the saying “birds of a feather flock together?” My friends and I are all similar in the sense that we are all insane. The most important part is that we’re all different kinds of crazy, i.e. boy crazy, crazy competitive, crazy temper and even just “I actually take

medication for being crazy” crazy. Obviously I am not suggesting that the best friendships are formed by a shared inability to function appropriately in the human world – what’s really crucial is just that you find people that really allow you to be yourself, flaws and all.

Some parting words for those who will still have the luxury of seeing Michelle Jug’s smiling face on a weekly basis for years and years to come: find your people. But at the same time, don’t worry if you haven’t found them yet – my friends are like my soulmates and if Kate and Leo have taught us anything, it’s that love will always eventually find a way.

And once you’ve found your people, make sure you cherish them every single day. Because at some point, you’ll be old and washed-up like me, dreading the day when you’ll no longer be rudely awoken by a slew of screeching biddies, slamming doors and pounding down the hallway asking, “where are are my IDs?” “does anyone know how I got this bruise?” and “where the hell did YOU sleep last night?!”

Contact Paige Schlesinger at [email protected].