They cheered you on when you got your driver’s license. They lent you a shoulder to cry on during your first breakup. They were by your side dancing the night away at your senior prom. Let’s face it, your high school friends were there through thick and thin during some of the most important moments in your life.
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Friends come and go, but your high school besties take friendship to the next level. Even if you’re not as close now as you were back in homeroom, your high school friends are something so special. With them, it’s effortless. No matter how far you live from each other, it’s so easy to pick back up where you left off. They’ve seen you at your best and your worst, and they helped you become the person they are today. They may as well be family.
Just look at the Pretty Little Liars of Rosewood. They’ve gone through it all — bullying, con artists, parents going to jail, being abducted from a prison van and plopped into a life-size dollhouse, the list goes on. And the reason they manage to get over these hurdles? Because they always have their BFFs there to back them up.
Need more proof of why your high school friends are the best in the world? Let’s let science take it away …
1. They make you more confident.
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Remember when you scored the lead role in the school play? Or mustered up the courage to ask that guy to the school dance? You may want to thank your high school crew for some of your big wins. According to Psychology Today, your friendships during your teenage years boost your self-esteem.
2. They prevented you from going down the wrong path.
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It’s not just DARE or lectures from parents that keep teens away from drugs and getting into trouble — your good friends had a huge influence too. According to Psych Central, teens who didn’t have positive peer relationships are at greater risk for developing delinquency and substance abuse.
3. They shaped your BRAIN.
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The reason you’re the awesome person you are today? High school friends, FTW! Early friendships play a major role in shaping you because they occurred when some of your key developmental changes are taking place.
“The brain continues to change throughout life, but there are huge leaps in development during adolescence,” Sara Johnson, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told LiveScience.
4. Even the ones you’re not close with now shaped who you are today.
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High school friendships have such an influence on us that they stick with us for a lifetime. According to Psychology Today, you are the product of the friends who are no longer your friends. Can you say the same about your college friends?
4. They taught you important life skills
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While you probably weren’t too concerned with acquiring valuable life skills during the pep rally, you were actually getting them from your high school friends. According to LiveScience, friends help each other learn how to negotiate, compromise and plan as a group.
“They are practicing adult social skills in a safe setting and they are really not good at it at first,” Sheryl Feinstein, author of Inside the Teenage Brain: Parenting a Work in Progress, told LiveScience.
5. They help you de-stress
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Your relationships help you cope with stress, but even just maintaining friendships, like your ones from high school releases oxytocin, a hormone that reduces the tension levels and keeps you relaxed.
6. They helped shape your love life
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Met your soul mate? Thank your bestie from high school ASAP. Science says teen friendships help shape later romantic relationships says.
7. They’re the key to happiness
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One of the biggest perks friendship in general is that it boosts your happiness. And, who doesn’t want that? It’s certainly true of your high school BFFs, too. Science says they prevented you from depression.
8. They’ve provided you with guidance and emotional support
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Along with boosting your self-esteem, your teenage friendships provided you with guidance and emotional support when you needed it most.
9. They help you live a longer and healthier life.
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Not only do friends keep you happy and stress-free, but they even help you overcome diseases and help you lived longer. And your high school friends? They’ve been keeping you healthy for the longest time.
“Not having a social support network can be a higher death risk than obesity or leading a sedentary life without exercise,” Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology and head of a study at Brigham Young University told the Huffington Post.
Aww! Friends sure are priceless, aren’t they? This calls for a group hug:
TVD
What’s your favorite thing about your best friends? For those of you not in high school, do you still keep in touch with your closest pals? Tell us in a comment!
*Relive the Cutest BFF Moments from PLL Season 1!*
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