I’ve always been extremely family oriented and moving away to college didn’t change that. However, I know that isn’t true for everyone. Sometimes when you move, you lose ties with the people that you use to see everyday. Here are some of the things that my family and I have done to stay as close (if not closer) than we were when I was living at home.
1.) Fam group chat
A few years ago, back when you could first make SnapChat group chats, I created a group chat for all of as. Now, this only works if every family member uses SnapChat, which at the time, everyone did. Since then, I have a new brother and he doesn’t have a phone yet as he is on the younger side. However, I always love opening up snaps from my family and seeing that he has taken one of my parents phones and sent a selfie. SnapChat is a great and easy way to keep in contact on an everyday basis. I can see where my dad’s job has sent him that week as he loves taking video selfies of every office he steps into no matter where in the world. My mom sends pictures of her outside enjoying the nice weather on her lunch breaks. Every snap from my brother consists of some crude joke. Meanwhile, my sister and I keep our family up to date on how badly we are drowning in reading or calculus homework.
2.) Meeting half way
My school is only two hours away from home so meeting halfway for lunch on the weekends isn’t out of the question. We do this a few times a year so that we can interact face-to-face rather selfie-to-selfie. This is harder when you go to school out of state, but my parents still attend my sister’s games even though she is six hours away from home.
3.) Family weekend getaways
This past weekend was an extra long weekend at my sister’s college. She flew into a nearby city and I picked her up Thursday night. We got dinner and drove early the next morning to meet the rest of the family at Stowe Mountain where we all spent the weekend skiing/snowboarding together. When the slopes closed for the day we all hung out in the small condo that we rented playing cards and making fun of each other (because what else would siblings do?)