Staff Editorial | The Chronicle
Not every friendship has to survive the weekend. Some of the best ones live in the classroom: the “school friends” who share inside jokes about the difficulty of an Advanced Placement class, are quick to compare test scores and make the clock move faster until the bell rings.
These are not the people you are texting on a Saturday night or inviting to your birthday party. But they are the ones who make your day better in small, important ways. They are the partner who actually does their part during group projects, the person you vent to about a tough teacher or the tablemate who makes a boring lecture a little less painful. They are the people who slide you a piece of gum before a test, laugh with you when the teacher mispronounces your name and give you the “we are in this together” look when the class takes a quiz you have been dreading for the past week.
At a large high school like ours, making friends can be one of the most daunting tasks. For a school so large, it can still sometimes feel like everyone has already solidified their “friend groups,” and there is no space left to squeeze in. But school friends prove that this is not true. They remind us that you don’t need to be best friends with someone to feel connected to them. Even a small bond can make a big difference when you are navigating the chaos of the school day.
Freshman year, you are just happy to know someone in the room. It does not matter if you sit next to them at lunch or if they are in your English class; they feel like a lifeline. Sophomore and junior year, new schedules bring new sets of people and you start to build up a whole collection of these connections. Suddenly, you realize you are waving to people in the hallways you might never have met otherwise. By senior year, you have gathered so many school friends that the hallways feel less overwhelming and almost cozy. A big school suddenly feels a lot smaller when you can not walk to class without bumping into at least three familiar faces.
And that is the hidden perk of going to a large school like Mason. Because classes are shuffled every year, we are not stuck with the same people over and over. Instead, we get a chance to start fresh, sit next to someone new and create more of these casual but meaningful friendships. It forces us to meet new classmates and form connections we might not have made otherwise. Each year, our circle gets a little wider, even if those circles do not overlap outside of school.
School friends may not stick around forever, and that is okay. Their value is not in being lifelong best friends but in making everyday life better. They are proof that not every friendship has to be deep to be meaningful. In some ways, they represent the best of what our school can offer: small communities inside a big, intimidating building.
So when schedules come out and you see a list of unfamiliar names, do not roll your eyes. Think of it as a chance to find your next school friend: the kind who might not show up in your weekend plans, but who will make Monday through Friday a whole lot easier to get through.
