Whether it be friends from high school, across the country, or old family friends they all have one struggle in common – staying in touch. While it’s great to make new friends and make new memories, there’s nothing like those people that you’ve known for years. Not being together can be hard and maintaining those friendships is a common problem for young adults. However, there’s more than a handful of ways to keep the connection going with your closest friends even when they aren’t within walking distance.
Make the most out of your phone.
Knowing that the the majority of our generation has a smartphone, there isn’t really excuse to not keep in contact. Phones work for much more than snapchat, games, and social media. They work for Facetime calls as well! Texting is an obvious way to reach out to most people in this era of technology, but there’s something more personal and interesting that comes with a Facetime. This can be a key component for connection, perfect for almost any time of the day. I personally love Facetiming my friends on long walks around campus, in the kitchen making food and dancing to the best bops of our high school careers, and even late at night in the middle of the week when there’s nothing else to do!
Group chats are key.
Personally, my friends from high school remain incredibly close and I give most of the credit to the life of our group messages that we started almost four years ago! Group text messages, group snapchats, group twitter messages, even group instagram messages play a huge role in keeping everyone updated on what is going on, the funny memes and terrible selfies are a good laugh too!
Plan a trip together.
Over the summer, some of my closest friends from high school and I gathered into a cramped car to take a trip to Lollapalooza before we went our separate ways again at the start of the school year. This was not only an amazing way to end the summer, but also a perfect chance to spend time with my favorite people. Spending five days in the middle of an beautiful city with my closest friends strengthened our bond and left us with lasting memories. A weekend trip to the lake? Great! A day trip to the city? Amazing! A full blown week-long adventure to somewhere extravagant? Perfect! There’s a million things to do when you’re in great company!
Find time to see each other.
Breaks from school are the perfect time to meet up with those friends from back home! With holidays and even those long weekends, there are more than a couple opportunities to take some time and catch up with people that you don’t see every day! In my opinion, college game days are the best excuse for friends to come visit and see where I spend all my time!
No matter what, maintaining long distance friendships is hard and there’s no easy way to keep in contact with the busy lives that come with growing up, but finding a way makes for an unbreakable bond that is pretty hard to break up.