As a girl who has been through two different highschools and grew up going to sleepaway camp I have quite a few long distance friends. My farthest friend lives in the countryside of the Czech Republic, but I also have friends ranging from outside the Boston area to all the way in the South attending SEC schools.Â
After doing years of long distance with all of us just recently heading into college, we have successfully found four fun ways to stay connected until our next visit or trip back to our camp!
- Writing Letters
One of my absolute favorite ways to stay connected with my friends is penpalling them. We tend to write about things that don’t seem “important” enough to send a text about. This ranges from info about our classes, clubs we’ve joined on campus, new hallway crushes, what we did last weekend, and what is going on with our college friend groups. We also love including magazine cutouts, tea packets, stickers, music recommendations, copies of our google calendars, and more. Not only is the actual act of writing the letter fun and relaxing, it is also so exciting getting the message to pick up a letter from the mailroom.
- Weekly Photo Dumps
One of my favorite things is opening your phone to one of your best friends sending you 10+ pictures describing their week. This is a great way to stay connected because if your friends are anything like mine their instagram is very carefully curated so you get to see the messier and fun side through these photo dumps! I personally will send pictures of my lunches, my outfits, screenshots of my assignments for the week or funny texts. Pictures of what I did the prior weekend, funny pictures of me and my friends, etc are also big hits.Â
- Phone calls
A classic way of staying in touch with anyone is just picking up the phone and calling them. One of my friends and I will call each other and go on a walk “together”. We will call and chat as she walks through her large campus in Georgia, and I stroll down the crowded streets of the Fenway area in Boston. I have another friend who I try to facetime every few weeks in order to catch up and stay in touch. Even though I always go to bed at least an hour later than I intended, it is always worth it!
- Slideshows
If you are anything like me you need to match a face to a name to help you follow along with the story. One solution that I simply adore is the use of a canva slideshow. My friends and I will put in pictures ranging from roommates to classmates, notable tinder matches and campus celebrities. We tend to stick a picture on the slide and then add in a name and a brief description. It totally helps with following along and helping know who your friend is talking about, and why they are important to the story!