After I went abroad, I made a group of really close friends that I had met on the program. Some of them go to F&M, which makes me incredibly happy, but more of them are from different cities and schools spread throughout the East Coast, New England, and even the Midwest. Keeping up this friendship while being at separate schools and trying to balance our class, work, and social schedules make it incredibly difficult to find time to meet up. It’s hard enough finding time to hang out with my friends at F&M – finding an entire weekend to travel hours is almost impossible. But we’ve done it.
The first time we got to meet up after being abroad was July fourth weekend. Since F&M has the most of us here that were in Bath, we can easily convince our friends to come to campus and stay at our apartments. In July, we got together and it was a fantastic reunion, even though we were missing some people. It’s so hard to find times when everyone’s schedule matches up. But, enough of us were here, so we spent time on campus, got some great food, and then went up to my family’s cabin to hang out in the woods. Saying goodbye was difficult at the end of that when we’d been used to living together for months.
This weekend, we all got together for Halloween, though once again, some people couldn’t make it. We went around Lancaster, introduced our friends to people from campus, and then went to the Chameleon Club for an F&M event. Right now, we’re planning on meeting up in NYC over winter break.
While we’ve all been lucky enough to get to see each other every few months, it can still be hard being so far apart. We keep a group chat going on Facebook and Snapchat each other constantly. We update each other about important issues in our lives and know that we can rely on one another for solid advice and support. We’re even talking about all moving to the same area or city in a few years, and have plans to go back to Bath for a reunion. Like with any relationship, we’re committed to making this work.