In university, you’ll make lots of friends, many of which won’t be in the same year as you. Maybe they’re older than you, or maybe you took a semester off – but however it happens, you’ll likely have friends who graduate before you do. This is something I’m experiencing this year for the first time, and I’m experiencing it with my best friend.
We’ve been inseparable since first year. One of our profs used to confuse us and call us by the other’s name. I barely lived in my dorm room because I was always in hers. We did each other’s hair and makeup. We helped each other with homework. We giggled about boys. We cried about boys. We fought. We made up. We took care of each other. And this past year, she graduated and moved away.
It’s been a learning curve for us. We’d never really been apart except for the summers when we’d both go home, but even then we knew it was only a few months until we’d both be back in the same city. Now we’re dealing with the sobering thought that we may never be in the same city again.
We call each other a lot. A while ago, she called me at night and joked as she got off the phone, “Okay, love you, call you in the morning!” Whether or not we have a lot of updates in our lives to talk about, we try to call each other at least once a week. And when something big happens, we call each other right away.
We also try to help each other through these weird, transitional periods in our lives. I’m in my fifth year of my undergraduate, and she helps talk me through how lonely it sometimes feels after most of my class graduated without me, and how stressful it’s been applying to Master’s programs. I help her through the weird post-graduate phase everyone goes through where, for the first time in 19 years, she’s not in school every day.
And it’s important to celebrate the little victories. She enthusiastically shares every article I write for Her Campus with dance mom pride. I called her to congratulate her on getting her first “big girl” job.
We FaceTime with my cat, and we post things on each other’s Facebook walls. We try to make things feel the same as when we were in the same city. And while I often find myself wishing she could come over and make Kraft Dinner and watch Joss Whedon shows with me, I know that as long as we keep staying in touch a priority, our friendship will survive the distance and the big changes we’re both going through.