Appreciating Friends and Family After Moving Away

After moving away to college, I found a deeper appreciation for my family and people I am close with. Sometimes we do not fully understand how blessed we are to have the people in our lives that we have because they are always with us. However, once we move away and are not constantly around them, we start to really appreciate having them in our lives. 

When getting ready to move away to go to college, we usually get so excited to be independent and to be on our own. We do not fully realize how much we rely on our parents and family for a lot of everyday things. We do not have our moms to make us food or do our laundry, and we do not have our dads to help us fix things, or our siblings to keep us company when we are bored, or our pets to cuddle and play with. 

We are so used to having the thing that we grew up with that we do not realize how different our lives will be once we move away and we do not have the things we are used to having. When you move away from friends and family it is an eye-opening moment to realize who the important people are in your life. If they keep in touch and check on you and genuinely care about how you are doing, that is how you know they are good friends. A lot of times the friends you had in high school will not stick with you in college, but your family will. 

You still have the ability to call or video chat with your family and close friends to keep in touch and stay updated on each other’s lives. If you really want to keep the existing relationships that you have, make sure to put in the time and effort to keep in touch with those people and check up on them. If you wait for them to check in on you, they may be waiting for you to do the same thing and the relationship will eventually crumble. It does not matter if you live two hours away or twenty four hours away, you are still not with those people all the time and still have to make an effort to keep those relationships moving forward. 

College is a great time to make new friends and find yourself, your likes and dislikes, and find where you want to go and what you want to do in life. The friends you make in college are the friends that you could potentially have for life. 

Your family is always there for you. They will always support you. They have grown with you your entire life and they will continue to stick by you. Just because you live somewhere else does not mean that they stopped caring. Yes, it is easier to keep up to date on relationships when you are closer to those people but putting in effort in relationships that matter will be worth it in the end. Being away for a long period of time will only make it so much sweeter when you finally do get to see your family and friends when you go back home to visit.

• appreciation
• family
• friends
• love
• moving away