Dear Annie: Flaky freshman friends

Dear Annie: I’m about to be a sophomore in college, and I am on summer break. I have not really talked to any of my friends from college since we have all been busy with internships and traveling. It makes me nervous that we will lose the connections we made throughout the school year. I have tried to talk to some of my friends through FaceTime, but we always seem to flake on the call. It makes me wonder if we were only friends because we were together 24/7 in school, and not because we have a true connection.

I also notice that I connect and trust my friends back at home more because we grew up together and experienced similar hardships in the ‘hood that some of my college friends can’t relate to at all. My ‘hood friends are also more supportive, caring and closer to my family. They make me feel like I can do anything, and they’re definitely ride or die.

How do I ease the nervousness of potentially losing friends? How do I navigate the two different worlds of my hood friends and college friends? I thank you in advance for your response. – Concerned Sophomore

Dear Sophomore: Your childhood friends sound like a true gift. Anyone who makes you feel like you can do anything is worth keeping. Research shows that much of one’s success or failure in life is determined by the people we associate with most of the time. You are on the right track to surround yourself with those types of friends.

As far as losing touch with your new college friends or worrying if they were really your friends at all, only time will tell. If you lose a friend by being apart for a summer, then he or she was never really a long-term friend to begin with.

True friendship lasts a lifetime and can withstand distance.