Childhood friends can be the best friends you will ever have in your life. They have been there since the beginning, and if you survived high school together, you can probably survive anything. They know you better than anyone and have since the beginning. Eventually, you have to part ways. That bittersweet day may come when you go your separate ways to colleges that are hours away from each other. You are both so excited for the opportunities ahead of you, but a part of you wishes you could always be together. These feelings usually result in each of you trying to convince the other to go to the same college.
Once you are apart, you have to do your best to maintain a long-distance friendship. And the struggle is real. Schedules alone are difficult to navigate. You can’t talk in the morning because you have class, but she has a club meeting in the evening so you can’t talk then. Usually this craziness leads to 3 a.m. phone calls or phone tag, and you communicate mostly through voicemail and Snapchat.
Because of your busy schedules, visiting is difficult. Your fall and spring breaks might not line up and weekend trips are just not long enough. But you make it happen, even if it means you have to drive six hours to only be together for 12 hours, because going over five months without seeing each other might drive you crazy.
Boy drama and friend gossip is even more ridiculous apart than when you were together because you don’t personally know these people. That means 15 percent of your conversations sound something like “Wait, are you talking about drunk Amy?” “No, this is the Amy who never cleans her hair out of the sink” “Oh yeah, I hate her.” But, let’s be honest, you still know EVERYTHING about your BFF’s crush down to their favorite flavor of ice-cream. Which means you have to pretend not to know all this information when you actually meet them in person. Breakups are so much harder, because you’re not together to creep on their Instagram and eat chocolate while watching Dirty Dancing.
As amazing as your friends in college are, no one is like your best friend (You know, something about one being silver and the other gold). The struggles of long-distance friendships are totally worth it though, because it doesn’t matter if it’s a 3 a.m. phone call or a six hour drive, being able to talk to or be with your bestie makes everything better.