You know what’s weird? Coffee dates.

Or rather, being the kind of person who goes on them.

Like how many times have you seen that one friend that you actually really liked from that one class/freshman floor/party/insert-meeting-place here and swore you’d “meet for coffee” but then, of course, you never do, because who’s got the time?

Last semester, after having the chillest freshman year imaginable, reality sunk in. I transferred to Tisch and everything changed. I went from having 10 hours of class a week to nearly that same amount in a single day. I, of course, wouldn’t change a single thing about my life now. The only people I interacted with in the fall were the WSN staff, my acting group, my roommates (sometimes) and my dear best friend Katrina whom I met for lunch twice a week. Everyone else fell away — not because I didn’t like or value them, but because I quite literally didn’t have the time.

My freshman floor grew pretty close. Well, my room and the boys next door did at least. And the boys down the hall. So really just the three rooms. But we literally saw each other everyday. We ate together, watched movies together, nursed each other back to health when we were sick, used each other’s bathrooms when our roommates were in the shower — it was the freshman dream. This year, ask me how much I’ve seen the people who were my, for lack of a better term, “freshman squad?” I can literally count the encounters on one hand. Most have been accidental run-ins at dining halls.

I’ve heard a lot of seniors say the saddest thing about graduating college is knowing you’re not going to see your friends every day, and that’s so eerily true. This year I’ve gotten a preview of that. My freshman floormates live at most 15 minutes away from me, and I’ve seen each one probably two times this year. What’s going to happen come spring 2019 when we all jet off to different parts of the country and the world to live completely separate lives?

Ask anyone — I thrive on community. My major literally revolves around community. I’ve talked about this all before. So what’s going to happen when I go from seeing my dear Playwrights family three or more (usually more) days a week to living in opposite ends of the world?

So coffee dates. That’s what our friendships get relegated to. “Oh, you’re in town? Let’s grab lunch! Oh, you don’t have time? Then let’s just grab a coffee!” And so our lives will be —  unfulfilled promises of coffee dates with people you once saw everyday. Who you shared your dumbest, happiest, saddest and funniest moments with. Such is life. Such is growing up.

Email Rachel Ruecker at [email protected].