I am dreading returning back to Michigan. This is only for two reasons: 1) I do not want to leave Stanford and my newly made friends, and (2) I do not want to return to my old friends. Aside from those two things, I am perfectly okay with going back. (I mean, I do miss my family after all.)

After living and constantly being around my Stanford friends, I feel as if we are all going to absolutely dread leaving one another come August 17th. Thankfully, a few of my friends here live between an hour and a state away. (Hannah and Noah lives within that hour; Kenji, Rayonna, and Tiffany lives within a state).  But the distance still does not allow us to always see each other like we have been this summer, which sucks...a lot. 

My feelings are going to be a lot more intense when I leave Stanford, though, because I already do not like the people that I attend school with. Having to go back to them (and for two more years!) makes me impeccably sad. But those are just the people who I do not consider my "friends." Let me tell you about these friends of mine, y'all. Let me tell you! They are nice people; they are cool people; they are people that I can have a good time with (sometimes). On the other hand, they still are not the type of friends that I can see myself wanting to stay friends with after high school. (Oh! This excludes Treasure and Nicole, who I can see myself still talking to.)

Meeting my newest friends at Stanford has opened me up to the diversity of the world and its inhabitants. Each and every person that I have met are different in every sense - race, religion, nationality, ideas. They also are more open-minded than the ones that I have back home. Trust me, I am not dragging on my older friends. (No way!) I am simply saying that meeting people who I can be my true self with, people that I can talk about (literally) everything with, has made be realize what I am missing back home and what I do not want to leave. I enjoy the companionship and realness that I have found here in Palo Alto, California.

I hope that I stay in contact with my new friends here. Okay, my international friends and I may not talk a lot (Italy, England, Turkey, and Dubai), but the ones closer by are on-and-popping. Like, three of my friends freaking live in Michigan! One lives in Toronto, Canada. One lives in D.C. Two live in Cleveland, Ohio. Two live in Chicago, Illinois. One lives in North Carolina. Two live in Texas. (Granted, that's not nearby, but we'll go with it.) (And these are only the people that I have gotten closer to over the summer. There are people in so many more places out here in CA.) I ache to keep the companionship that I have been granted to find over the summer of 2014. These are the type of people that I want to surround myself with: fun, warm-hearted, open-minded, intelligent, hilarious individuals. These people judge little to no one; they can laugh at the craziest of stuff; they can talk about murdering people like it's really normal (inside joke, y'all); and they can just make me feel welcome. I have not necessarily experienced these things while living in Michigan, attending the schools I've been to, and hanging out with the people I befriended.

The feeling that I have while with these people at Stanford is foreign to me, but I love it. I know that I am going to have to let go of it at the end of this summer, but for all that it's worth, I'd totally do it again. For the next couple of weeks, I'll be milking what is left of the time I have with my friends.

(Hannah, Noah, Tiffany, Rayonna, Anthonya, Kenji, Sean, Prishant, Shelly, Rachael, Sam, Sammy, Jay, Audrey, Matt, Luca, Kayali, Judy, Erika, Tina, Hayes, Chloe, Jo, Jasmine, Kiana and many more.)