Surviving a Long Distance Friendship

Life after high school is very different, you go from seeing your friends almost every day to only a few times a year during the holidays. Some friendships drift apart, but some get stronger with the distance. 

My best friend and I moved to two different continents after high school and as much as I miss our gossip sessions in between classes; I believe we grew closer over the past 3 years. When you grow up with someone, they know everything about you; your ups and downs, your biggest milestones and your most embarrassing moments. So moving apart, only makes you remember and value those moments more. Somehow a weekly phone call just turns into an 8-hour trip down memory lane and it’s one of the best feelings ever. 

Moving to a new place is never easy and having to do it alone is even harder. So, there’s a lot of times you’re frustrated, tired, and just wishing you never had to grow up or move away from home. But that’s just a part of growing up and becoming your own person. During these moments, we all need some support even if it is through FaceTime from your friend on the other side of the world. I think we all go through the same stuff, just in different contexts. Only when you start sharing, do you realize you’re not alone and having someone who understands your situation gives you so much more hope and confidence. 

The key to every relationship whether it’s with your best friend, significant other or even your parents is communication. We all have weeks when we are swamped with work and assignments or just days we want to stay low by ourselves. And that’s completely normal, but it’s also important you don’t end up losing contact with those that care about you. It’s often that you might think your friend has better things to do than worry about you but they honestly do want to make sure you’re doing alright. So sometimes when we don’t get a chance to talk much or catch up; we stay in touch in the smallest of ways by sending each other small snaps of being stuck in class or even asking which picture we should post on Instagram. That way we know we both are doing okay and when we finally do catch up; there’s usually so much to talk about and our conversations never get boring. 

For me the most important thing is that we treat each other like family and we know no matter what time zones we are in we’ll always have each other. When we finally do meet during the holidays, it honestly feels like we never left. If you’re moving away from home for college or work and fear losing your friends over the distance; don’t. Relationships aren’t that weak, you just have to put in a little effort and sometimes the distance makes you value it more. 

• friendship
• long distance friendships