Military children say goodbye to more significant people in their life by the time they reach the age of eighteen than the average person will during their entire life. So as a military brat, I’m used to having some of my best friends live all over the country. Currently they’re in Colorado, New York, and Oklahoma while I’m in Florida. It’s difficult not being able to have them within driving distance like everyone else does, but as fellow military brats, we know how to make it work. We learned how to master long distance relationships, and we learned not to let the distance separate us.
My friend who currently lives in New York used to live literally two doors down from me. She moved away in 2015, and I hadn’t seen her since. We had gone three years of pure long distance, so when our spring breaks lined up, we decided to meet up and reunite.
A lot of my friends told me that it would be weird and awkward because we hadn’t seen each other in three years. Everyone asked me what we were going to do and what we would have to talk about. I assured everyone that it would all be fine; I’ve done this before, but I don’t think that they believed me.
This is what happens when you see your best friend again after three years.
When you haven’t seen your best friend in three years, you run up to them in the airport and hug them like you never want to let them go. Three years has never felt so long.
When you haven’t seen your best friend in three years, you try to maximize the short week you have together. You schedule flights that come in on Saturday night and leave in a week early Sunday morning to have an actual full week. You still try to fit everything in, but there’s barely any time for just relaxing and sitting on the couch doing nothing because there’s not enough time to allow that.
When you haven’t seen your best friend in three years, every second counts. You have to maximize every second of the day because you don’t know when you’ll get this time next.
When you haven’t seen your best friend in three years, you have to make time to both reminisce over old memories and still making new ones.
When you haven’t seen your best friend in three years, you have to take hundreds of pictures and videos because that’s the only opportunity you’re going to have for a while. Those pictures are going to be the only current ones you have for possibly the next year.
When you haven’t seen your best friend in three years, saying goodbye at the airport feels like them moving across the country all over again.
When you haven’t seen your best friend in three years, you quickly learn to appreciate the small moments you have with them and everyone in general.
HC,
Alyssa Harmon
Sources:
http://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/10things.pdf