Graduation is such a beautiful and terrifying time in life. I imagine it’s similar to going on a trip, marriage, or trying a new recipe from Pinterest. Regardless of how you feel, once you commit, it’s happening. Along the way you’ve met some incredible people (and some less than stellar folks). You may or may not ever see some of these people ever again. Due to modern technology you’re able to better maintain those relationships through emails, texts, phone calls, facetime, social media, etc. The funny thing about having all these resources at our fingertips, we still manage to treat our relationships as if they are expendable when we no longer see people daily.
Here’s the thing about any relationship, it will survive even if you don’t see the other person every day. It’s about the effort and time you put into maintaining that relationship. If you’re not putting any effort into maintaining your friendship with a friend from your campus organization, do you really expect that relationship to continue? So what if they’re moving across the country? You didn’t lose the ability to shoot them a text every now and then that says you’ve been thinking about them.
I understand the struggles of long-distance friendship and the challenges of not being able to go over to your friend’s house after a bad day. I also understand that it’s not that hard to make plans to meet up somewhere or even to just make plans for a Skype date. Friendship is like a car that you have to take care of routinely. Of course, you don’t have to put oil in your car every day, just like you don’t have to text your friend on the opposite side of country every day.
I share this because too many people said “Goodbye forever! Have a good life!” in the closing weeks of the semester. I know people say this to be funny, but how often do they say it and then never make the attempt at reaching out to people they knew in college and liked (this being a key piece). Be fearless and intentional in keeping your friendships meaningful after college, you never know who you may run into again.