Long distance relationships aren’t always with your significant other. In my case, it isn’t. This is about my long-distance best friend. Trisha is my best friend, but we live in two different states. When you think of your best friend, its usually someone you see on a daily basis. Trish and I had been anticipating her move to Florida following our high school graduation. I met Trisha in sixth grade and we have been best friends ever since.
Her parents always said that when Trisha graduated high school, they would move to Florida. It didn’t seem like this move would actually happen until Trisha began applying to schools in Florida because her parents had begun looking for a new home and new jobs in Florida. She knew she wanted to move with her family and ended up attending The University of Central Florida in the fall. It was weird watching her drive away that summer as we said our last goodbye. The summer after graduation was the best summer yet (not just because we got matching best friend tattoo’s) but because we were ending a chapter of our life together and starting a new one apart. Although every summer has been fun, it was different this year. Bittersweet almost. It hadn’t really hit me that she moved to another state until I didn’t see her when I was home on break. I went to gatherings with our other mutual friends and it didn’t feel right without her there.
Overall, we had a stable friendship. I was usually the bossier and more dominant friend who made the decisions. She rolled with the punches and has always been a great friend, but I didn’t realize how much I actually appreciated her until she wasn’t a 5-minute drive away or just down the hall in school. Everything about Trisha going to Florida was hard. We were inseparable, and I felt like she was the only person who could understand how I felt. She has always been smarter than me which I admired her for. So, with her majoring in Forensics, our schedules were different. We started talking to each other less and less. We FaceTimed and texted as often as we could. But it wasn’t the same as it used to be. This is what affected me the most. Neither of us meant to be distant. We were adapting to our new environments. I knew she was loving college and as was I, but I wanted to experience it with her. She was still my best friend, of course.
It was definitely hard to adjust to seeing Trish making new friends. When I learned about them, I would be jealous. I would see her posts on social media and it would upset me. I knew we both would make friends in college but I didn’t want to be replaced. I would overthink constantly, thinking she would forget me. I know she had a hard time adjusting to living in another state and being away from her comfort zone of friends, but she met some amazing people who she now calls her best friends. I know I will always be her best friend, and so will the new people she met.
I had booked a flight at the end of my senior year in high school to visit Trisha at UCF in January. When we talked about it we would get so excited and counted down the days. This would be the first time I would see her, since she had moved in August. I was getting more and more excited each day to see her. When I saw Trish, it was as if we could pick up right where we left off. At that moment I really realized that she would forever be my best friend. We see each other every couple of months and this past summer she lived with me.
She is a blessing to have in life.