High school students spend almost every single day with friends, interacting with them during lunch and perhaps even clowning around in class. It is likely that they may have even wondered what their life would be like without them, but did not spend too much time on the thought. After all, friends can often seem like a second family–why would anyone ever part away?

According to USA Today, teenagers “spend all four years of high school building a core group, ignoring the fact that it will inevitably collapse.” Nonetheless, sometimes one meets certain people that they end up staying friends with for a long time. Oxnard High School senior Adrian Damian said, he was friends with fellow OHS students York Hernandez, Guillermo Sandoval, and Vincent Rodriguez since elementary school.

“It was mainly because we got into sports and it transitioned into high school–we just kept our friendship going,” said Damian. However, he said keeping a big circle of friends is easier said than done, “As you go on through high school, the circle shrinks.”

According to  Psychology Today, research on friendship stability shows that “older children are better at maintaining friendships than younger children, probably because they are better able to resolve conflicts.” Although, teenadvice.com states that even if one stays in touch with their friends through phone calls, they “can taper off or stop altogether.”

On an optimistic note, OHS sophomore Soleil Jones said, after high school, she is likely to stay in touch with friends. “I’m not really moving anywhere far, so I’ll probably keep in touch with a couple of people.”

Some people believe that their friendships will last a lifetime, but what they fail to realize is that something unexpected may happen and their friendships will not last. Speaking from experience, OHS senior Veronica Ruiz said, “The group of friends that I was with for, like, seven years– we kind of had a silent goodbye because they just faded away.”

Furthermore, senior Veronica Villegas said since coming to OHS as a freshman, she “likes to pick her friends very carefully.” Villegas also said, “I like to associate myself with people who motivate me…it’s not easy to be my friend.”

One can make friends in all types of ways, and their method of striking up a friendship with someone can be entirely different from another person’s. Villegas said, “When you’re young, you don’t really look for anything specific in a friend. You just want someone to hang out with, but now in high school, you look for more in a person than just your first impression of them.”