Friendships take a real battering around this time of year as we make choices for our school career paths and need to choose where we will carry on with our studies.
Most upsetting is facing the prospect that girlfriends and boyfriends will be forced to split up as one of them is leaving for a new place overseas. Some of us get given the opportunity to board, go on exchanges or move to a new place and this creates problems for the people who aren't going with us.
Even though you are experiencing the pains of separation, your friends can find it even harder to deal with because they aren't getting a change of scenery, or facing new challenges, but instead feel like they are being left behind.
It may seem like you will never see each other again, and maybe if you do see each other that the relationship will have changed and it will never be as good as it is now. This is not the case if the bonds of friendship are strong.
Like any relationship, if you work at it, you gain greater insight on what makes it good. The rest happens naturally.
Preparing for university, I knew that I was being separated from my closest school friends who I depended on seeing every day. I hoped that wouldn't be the end of all those friendships.