It was never about a boy.
Growing up, I always thought the most important relationship I'd ever have would be with a boyfriend.
Every movie told me that.
Every love song told me that.
The ending was always the same: girl meets boy, they fall in love, and that's where the story ends.
Nobody really talks about the girls who got you there.
If I'm being honest, I didn't really get it in high school either.
I had friends that I loved, but I didn't understand just how much female friendships could shape a person. I always assumed the biggest love story of my life would be romantic. I thought that one day I'd find "my person," and that would be the relationship that defined me.
Then I moved away to college.
Everything changed.
Somehow, I got unbelievably lucky.
I met four girls—Francesca, Carlie, Bryn, and Emma—and without even realizing it, they became my family.
I don't think they'll ever know how much they changed my life.
College wasn't always easy for me. There were days when I questioned everything. I felt anxious, overwhelmed, homesick, and sometimes so lost that I couldn't recognize myself. I had moments where getting through the day felt harder than it should have.
They never "fixed" me.
They just loved me through it.
Sometimes it looked like sitting on the floor of our apartment talking until two in the morning. Sometimes it looked like spontaneous late-night drives, making frozen pizzas after a long day, or laughing over something so stupid that we couldn't breathe. Sometimes it was simply existing in the same room together without anyone needing to say a word.
They reminded me that life could still be beautiful, even on the days when I couldn't see it myself.
I think everyone deserves friends who make your apartment feel more like home than your childhood bedroom.
Friends who notice you're quieter than usual before you've even realized it yourself.
Friends who celebrate your wins like they're their own and somehow make your bad days feel a little lighter just by showing up.
Then I joined GPhi.
I don't think I realized how powerful it was to be surrounded by so many incredible women until I experienced it.
For the first time, I was constantly surrounded by women who wanted the best for one another. Women who hyped each other up before interviews, celebrated internships, cried together after breakups, and never hesitated to remind each other of their worth.
There was something so comforting about realizing that womanhood didn't have to be lonely.
Then recruitment happened.
I always thought recruitment was about finding new members.
Now I realize it was really about finding new sisters.
Every conversation reminded me that the girls sitting across from us were looking for exactly what I had once been looking for, a place to belong.
And somehow, through recruitment, I found even more friendships that I never expected. Girls who started as strangers became people I now can't imagine my college experience without.
It's funny how life works.
One conversation.
One roommate assignment.
One decision to go through recruitment.
One "Do you want to grab lunch?"
That's all it takes for someone to change your life completely.
I think people underestimate how much your friends influence the person you become.
You start picking up their phrases.
Their habits.
Their confidence.
The way they love people.
The way they handle hard things.
Little pieces of them quietly become little pieces of you.
Every friend I've loved has left something with me.
One taught me how to be brave.
One taught me how to laugh at myself.
One taught me that it's okay to ask for help.
One taught me that showing up matters more than saying the perfect thing.
Without realizing it, they all helped raise me.
Maybe that's why leaving college someday scares me more than getting a job.
I'm not afraid of working.
I'm afraid of not living five minutes away from the girls who accidentally became my family.
One day we'll all move.
We'll have careers.
Some of us will get married.
Some of us will have children.
Life will naturally pull us in different directions.
And honestly...
That thought breaks my heart a little.
But I also know this.
The women who are meant to stay in your life somehow always find a way.
The texts might become longer.
The visits might become less frequent.
The friendship might get quieter.
But somehow...
It gets deeper.
I've learned that love isn't just romantic.
Love is your roommate bringing you food because she knows you forgot to eat.
Love is someone sitting beside you while you cry, even when neither of you knows what to say.
Love is laughing until your stomach hurts over a joke nobody else would understand.
Love is getting ready together before a night out and somehow deciding that was the best part of the night.
Love is choosing each other over and over again without ever needing a reason.
I still hope I fall in love someday.
I really do.
But if my twenties have taught me anything, it's this:
The greatest love story of my life hasn't been with a boy.
It's been with the women who reminded me who I was every time I forgot.
And I think that's a kind of love we don't celebrate nearly enough.