Relationships with friends and/or a significant others are some of the most important things you’ll ever possess. Friends are the people you hang out with, vent with, laugh with, get furious at and then make up with. You’ve shared some of your strongest emotions with these people and have incredible bonds with them. Ultimately, these bonds are unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.

However, when you graduate from high school, everything changes. When graduation time approaches, your thoughts are filled with the idea of finally earning your diploma and finishing another chapter of your life. You know it’s coming but mostly you’re so busy finishing school and doing other things that you don’t really do much about it.

Despite the fact that you try not to think of graduation as the end of your high school experience, you can’t help but think about it. It’s especially difficult if you know that you and your friends (or significant other) will be going to colleges far away. It can also be difficult if you and your friends are going to the same colleges, or even planning to hang around and get jobs.

Your fear of separation only increases as your mind is filled with thoughts of not being able to see them every day and you’re even scared that you and your friends will grow apart.

So what do you do about these friends and significant others? In general, some ways work better than others. Some teens just decide to let their expectations of what is going to happen come to pass. They graduate, enjoy the summer and move on. They are aware of the fact that things are going to change, but they don’t really worry too much about it. This works for people who are pretty laid back and flexible. If you tend to be more of a planner, this could end up being very stressful once things do start changing.

In this case, you would probably like to take some action before things do start to change.

Some teens decide to lose contact with their friends and significant others in anticipation of the changes and decide to take control before the change takes control of them. This works for people who are very independent and make new friends easily.

Other teens make elaborate plans on how to stay in contact with friends. There are many ways for us to communicate with one another these days, which include calling, texting, chatting on Facebook, Tweeting and, of course, actual visitations. This works for those who are realistic about how things will work.

They realize just how much real time and money they will have to spend in order to keep in contact and they know that, even though they will make new friends, they are still keeping in contact with the old ones.

Graduation will change everything and how it changes your relationship with others depends on many things. The only sure fact is that they will change. This change can be very hard. You may feel depressed, angry, frustrated, abandoned and alone. Be sure to have someone in your life to talk to about these feelings because often teens will get depressed even more if they are separated from those who helped them conquer these feelings in the past.

If this is the case, make sure to find a trusted adult that you can talk to about how you’re feeling like s a counselor, teacher, coach, or relative.
Finally, just remember that change can be really exciting. Even though your relationships with your high school friends will change, you will have so many new opportunities to make friends. Be sure to take advantage of them!