Goes away to college – check. Joins a sorority – check. Joins other clubs to beef up the resume – check. Makes a ton of new friends – check. College first started off scary, as I felt like an out of place freshman with no friends but soon became this fun adventure. I felt like I met the people who I would be friends with for the rest of my life but at some point I stopped prioritizing friendships. I started prioritizing different leadership positions, why?Of course it looked good on my resume, but it was something I was passionate about. I thought that it was fulfilling this passion that would “add value to my life.” It took around the time I was about to graduate from college to realize that all of the opportunities that stressed me out beyond measures, while at the end of the day helped so many other people ended up decreasing the quality as well as quantity of my friendships. I stoped prioritizing my friends. I stopped reaching out. I stopped checking in and soon they did too. I reached a point where I no longer prioritized friendships, I felt too stressed out to hang out with my friends and my friends slowly moved on. How many times can a person ask me to hang out and hear “no,” at what point do they give up and move on? I wish that I knew now, I knew then. I was so consumed with being president of this organization, vice president of that, planning event after event and still feeling a void that never completely filled. I know that what I did, what I planned, helped so many people but the feeling of success fleed. It was not until recently, that I realized no matter how involved I am, no matter what I accomplish… those feeling of success and achievement went away. If prioritized, do you know what doesn’t go away? Friends. Sure, friends grow apart but what happens when you alienate yourself from so many people soon those feelings of loneliness grow stronger and stronger. Success is great but I don’t want to reach a point where I have no one to share the success with. People: friends and family… they add value to your life.