This article was written by Everly Mag Intern Bridget.

Building and maintaining friendships can be some of the most stressful but also the most rewarding parts of being a teenager in High School . Your friends will likely change at least a little bit over the four years and that’s completely okay! As someone who has already experienced all of high school myself, here are some of the things I have learned about high school friendships and my advice about building healthy and lasting relationships.

Surround Yourself with Supportive and Positive People

This is one of the most important things you should consider when choosing who you want to surround yourself with, both in high school and later in life. If someone you consider a friend is constantly putting you down, feeding you negative thoughts, making you second guess yourself, or just consistently dampening your mood, they don’t deserve your energy. A good friend should be your biggest supporter and encourager of positive change. Looking back at my own high school years, I realize that I wasted a lot of energy investing my time in friendships with individuals who made me feel insecure, unintelligent and unable to be my true myself. This had a negative impact on the way that I expressed myself in school and out. I wish I would have realized the damaging effects of this friendship on my self-esteem and behavior so that I could have removed myself from the situation earlier. Try to be aware of the impact of your friendships on your well-being and make sure that they are positive! In the same way, evaluate your own role as a friend and ensure that you too are supportive, and uplifting.

Expand Your Horizons

If you feel as if there is not many people you can relate to or become friends with at school, do not give up now! Chances are there are so many individuals in your school who have some similar or compatible interests, attitudes, experiences and personalities, and you either just haven’t found them yet or don’t know enough about the individuals at your school. For instance, I didn’t make most of my high school friends until my senior year of high school. One day we finally decided to all hang out and realized that we were all so similar and had all been interested in hanging out with one another for the past few years, just no one had known how to orchestrate it. My biggest regret was not initiating a friendship with this group earlier. The best way to find out if you can click with someone is to just go up and talk to them or invite them to hang out with you.  My friends and I never would have been able to realize our similarities and become so close if we didn’t just go for it and make a plan to meet up.

High School Is Not Forever

Image:  Josh Applegate via Unsplash

If you feel like you haven’t made any friends in high school or you feel like your friends are not the friends you necessarily want to be by your side for the rest of your life, that is completely normal and fine. High school is only four years and you only had a small pool of people to choose friends from.  You have so many years ahead of you to make friends that you can really identify with throughout your daily life, further schooling, jobs or activities.  That being said, if you have high school friends that are very important to you, they can definitely remain in your life if you are willing to make the effort to continue the relationship. Some of my high school friends are still my closest friends, yet I have also made so many new friends in college that I consider to be just as close! High school does not last forever so make the best of it while it lasts but know that if things aren’t working out now, you have a whole life to live after high school and a whole world of possible friendships ahead of you.

What piece of advice would you give others about high school friendships? Comment Below!

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• Be Who You Want to Be

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Feature Image Credit: Courtney Prather via Unsplash