TikTok has been flooded with unfortunate canon events that will happen to you in college, with some videos event suggestingthe loss of your high school friends. As a student who just began her seventh week at Ball State, I have decided that is incredibly untrue. Keeping an old friendship alive while you’re away may take some brief time out of your oh-so-busy day, but your friendships should be worth it. In this article, I will give you 4 tips on keeping your high school friendships alive when you are hundreds of miles away.
1. Weekly photo dumps
This is one of my favorite ways to stay in touch with my friends. Not only do you get to share all the fun (or not-so-fun) things you’ve done that week, but it inspires you to take photos of your simple tasks and make you appreciate them more. This is very easy and only takes a few minutes. It lets you see what all of your friends have been up to in a fun way.
2. Facetime Debriefs
We all know the joys of the Sunday afternoon debrief. Everyone from the night before piles into one person’s bed and you all get to hear the wild endeavors everyone went on. Coming to college has made these debriefs a little bit difficult. There is no more going out with your high school friends, plus they don’t know who you are talking about when you do a debrief. So, the Facetime debrief would be one day a week when you are free and you can just talk about how your week went. This can be about classes or sports, and of course, what you got into over the weekend.
3. Apps Made for Sharing
BeReal took Gen Z by storm last year. Now that it has phased out a bit, there have been more of these immediate sharing apps. Two of my favorites are Airbuds and Locket. Both of these apps are widgets that you can see on your home screen. Airbuds connects to your streaming platform and displays what you’re listening to your friends. From there you can go onto the app and make reactions and comments on their music taste. Locket is an app where you can take a picture on the app and it will show up on your friend’s widget. You can also add captions to your photos and make comments on your friend’s posts.
4. Make the Drive
This is the most obvious of all the ways to connect, but it is also the hardest. As someone without a car, I know that making your way across the state can be difficult. Since I am the only person without a car, a lot of my friends have come down to Muncie. Friends coming to visit is always the best. They get to see your new space, meet your new friends, and see how you are living.