Many people have experienced having a long-distance relationship. Having your significant other living miles away from where you live is always a struggle. We have read and written many articles about what is like to have the one you love far away from you. People share their stories and how they’ve dealt with it.
But, not many times do we hear about long-distance friendships. Although not rare, friendships are often strengthened by closeness and continuous interaction between the people involved in the relationship. So, when two friends are separated, a couple of things change, and is difficult. Just like any other relationship, a friendship requires time and effort for the participants to develop trust and closeness. But what happens when after this is achieved, your best friend moves hundreds of miles away from you?
When we are in high school we are surrounded by the same people that we meet during our previous stages of school – it isn’t until we graduate that we might have to part ways with our truest friends. Some of us are lucky enough to have our best friends in the same town that we live in, go to the same college or even share a dorm or apartment with them.
But some of us are separated from our best friends as we enter the next stage in our lives. This happens when your best friend goes to a college that is a state away or on the other side of the country, studies abroad in another country for a year or a semester, or moves a thousand miles from home to get their dream job. And of course, we are happy for them, we are glad they are making it and that they are enjoying life, and they would be happy for us to.
Not many people know what to do or how to continue to have this relationship when their best friend is far from them, and is understandable, being separated can be hard and might feel like a bump on the road that we can’t get through. But in reality, this too shall pass.
It is important to remember that as much as you miss your BFF, your BFF misses you a lot also. For some of us it is hard to keep up with everything because – let’s be honest – we are so busy. Your BFF might be going through the same struggles than you, and life is hard y’all.
Thanks to technology we are now more connected than year ago. Take advantage of resources like Skype to video call them, you only need Wi-Fi and to make some time to see your BFF face-to-face-(ish). Social media, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, is another way to keep up with them. Besides being able to see what you BFF is doing you can also send them messages (private and public), tag them in funny/cute videos and share with them articles that talk about just how you feel about them.
If that’s not enough, you can always call and text them. It’s not easy to live without your best friend by your side, but you will learn that is not impossible. Plus you will have a reason to visit new cool places, maybe meet halfway in a different city, or surprise them when they arrive home for vacation or the weekend.
“Together forever, never apart, maybe in distance, but never at heart.”