With the academic year coming down to a wined and four months of summer, or the start of the real world for our graduates, the issues of how to exactly keep your awesome friendships made here on campus strong. Nothing’s harder than trying to awkwardly recap the events of four months past in one convo come September; however, if you follow these three simple rules, you will have no problem keeping up even with the friends who live way more than a short car ride away.
1. Keep it constant
One of the worse things you can do is drop the constant communication you have going at school. Since you see your friends practically everyday or at the very minimum a few times a week, you may take the constant face-to-face communication for granted. I know for me personally, whenever I go on breaks during the academic year, I sometimes will not text my friends for almost the entire thing since I have it in my head “well, its only a week!” The problem with this during the summer is that summer recess is way longer than a few weeks. In fact, try four months! Everyone loses track of time if they’re not having to keep up to date with weekly deadlines for projects or upcoming classes so you risk falling into the trap of “I’ll text them next week” mentality. Once you get past three weeks, it’s hard to recap everything that’s gone on with your life without it sounding like a long list.
The best solution for this is to text at least weekly and to keep a constant flow of snaps and Instagram/Facebook/Twitter updates. This may seem superficial and, if you are as apposed to going on social media during the wonderful weather as me, kind of a hassle; however, it really is the best way to keep your friends up to date on everything if you don’t want to send a laundry list of events. Personalize snaps every now and then so your friends know your thinking of them and don’t be afraid to do a shout out via Throw Back Thursday. Making sure that every one of the friends you do want to keep in touch with realize how much they really are still involved with your life, even during a four month separation!
2. Don’t be afraid to travel
Now, you can make not seeing each other in person work for four months. Face time or Skype is a great substitute but nothing beats being able to hangout and do things in person. Plan now who and where you want to visit most. Starting your travel budget early and letting people know you’re going to be stopping by is key to increasing the chance these travel plans will work out best. Many of us already plan to be working this summer or doing summer classes so making sure you know how many days off you actually need to take will benefit you. If you have a strict boss or a class where the professor only lets you miss once, giving advance notice will help in making the request.
If money’s an issue, try meeting up at a half waypoint or carpool with another friend. Maybe you have a friend group large enough that you can do a mini road trip to each others houses if some people live closer to one another. Slitting gas money is always easier than going at it alone and getting to your friend’s house will be all the more fun. Don’t let a few miles stop you from getting to see your friends if it is a real possibility; although, it is completely understandable if it really just isn’t possible time wise or financially. Just make sure to really follow tip one and three then!
3. Make more plans for when you’re back!
It’s inevitable, unless your graduating, transferring, or dropping out, you will eventually be back on Siena’s campus eventually. Instead of dreading a possibly crappy schedule or the loss of all that free time in nice weather, plan for all the awesome things you can do with your friends when you get back! Talking about things you can do always gives you something to look forward to and can make coming back all the more exciting. To make these plans more reality than just talk, try doing events that you need to buy tickets for like a concert or a performance downtown. This is probably the best approach because, lets be honest, you can say all these great ideas for bonding but unless you actually invest in them with something tangible, they can really fall through.
Investing this kind of effort in your friends is the best way to keep your Siena friendships strong over the long four-month break. You will definitely get as good as you give, so following these three rules and keep your closest friends all the closer. Anyone who’s not willing to reciprocate is really not worth your time and truthfully, its better to find out now rather than later. Either way it’s a guaranteed you will have a good summer and will make a lot of memories to go into next year with to build on.
Picture Sources:
http://www.bene.be/images/uploads/2013-blog/20130713/summer-2013-580.png
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mYhJZmep7ic/maxresdefault.jpg
https://jbailey2013.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/social-media.jpg
http://az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/2016/03/21/6359411556346862322131487…