How my long distance best friend has shaped my college experience

“What am I going to do without you?” my best friend said as we hugged goodbye the day before we both left for freshman year. I put on a smile and assured her we would be fine, but in reality, I wasn’t so sure.

Yeah, we were best friends, but the amount of stories I had heard about losing touch with high school BFFs worried me. What was even scarier to me was the fact my best friend and I would be 1,000 miles apart and starting completely new lives without each other.

The first few weeks of college were really hard. With the nonstop activities to keep freshman busy, the attempts for us to find our ways around our large campuses, and make new friends, my best friend and I ended playing phone tag constantly. I would text her in the morning, and she wouldn’t respond until the evening and vice versa.

I started to become upset and understood what people were talking about. I realized how easy it was to be friends with someone in high school: you saw them everyday, talked to them everyday, and told them everything. I began to worry I was trying too hard to make something work with someone so far away.

It wasn’t until about halfway thru the semester I realized something very important. Friendships you care about take work. Especially long distance friendships. They shouldn’t be easy.

My best friend and I had found new lives, but we were still a huge part of each other’s old lives. I had to understand that if we weren’t texting or talking everyday it was okay. Somedays we would talk the entire day, and some days we wouldn’t. My best friend and I had to find a system that worked for us; we had to make time for each week to either talk on the phone, or FaceTime.

All of the effort was worth it though. When I came home for Thanksgiving break, and my best friend picked me up from the airport, it was if neither of us had left. We were still the same people, just growing and learning in different places.

Many people don’t realize how great a long distance best friend actually is. Not only do you have someone who is there for you through thick and thin, but you have someone who has an outside perspective on every situation, which typically renders great advice. There have been many times where my best friend has given me some of the best advice on situations I don’t think I would have gotten through on my own.

If anything, the relationship between me and my best friend is stronger than it was before we left for college. With summer quickly approaching, I know we will be able to spend a great deal of time together and I look forward to it. I will be able to appreciate her company when I have it, and appreciate it even more, when we aren’t face to face.