To my best friend across the country,

We’ve always been long distance best friends, so what makes college any different?

I was once talking about missing you to a friend from college whose best friend is also long distance and she summed it up perfectly; “it’s like when the person who understands you the most is so far away and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

She’s right. There’s nothing I can do about it, other than beam with pride when you text me about your amazing grades or burst with happiness when you tell me how amazing the boys are and then wish that I was there to meet them.

When you’re homesick, there’s nothing I want to do more than drive around blasting Taylor Swift and tell you it’s going to be okay, but I have to settle for a FaceTime or phone call where I am reminding you of all the reasons why you love your school.

I miss those times where we would spontaneously get on a train to see each other because it made it seem like we didn’t live THAT far.

I hate waking up to a text that I received at 3am asking if I’m awake because I have to remind myself that it’s only midnight for you. Or when I’m at my 10am and you’re still sleeping. I have no one to complain to about how boring my classes are or that I have no idea what is going on. The worst is when you jokingly say I can borrow your clothes, but you’re over a thousand miles away from me.

On the flip side, the fact that you are so far away from me has made us closer. People think that it must be hard to have a best friend that goes to school on the other side of the country and it is. But you have made it easy.

Back in the same time zone, our sleeping schedules are so different. I go to bed late and wake up late while you go to sleep earlier than I do and wake up earlier than I do, and now that we are in different time zones, our sleep schedules match up a little bit more. Typically while I am up at 1:00 in the morning, you never would be but since it is significantly earlier for you, I have someone who is awake to text with.

It makes me happy to know that you call me when you are walking alone somewhere or the fact that I have you to talk to while I eat lunch in my dorm room. I live for the nights where we both have nothing to do and FaceTime for 2 hours straight or the mornings where we cannot stop texting because every detail has to be spilled from the night before.

Truthfully, our relationship hasn't changed a bit. We still tag each other in best friend posts on Facebook and send each other pictures asking "which one should I insta??" And best of all, our food Instagram account (@welive4food) has more followers and more variety because we both have more restaurants to try.

I hate being so far away from you but I know that in the end, nothing about our friendship is any different than before we left for school.

Thank you for making me feel like I am on the west coast with you and for keeping me updated on your life. Thank you for going to a school that feels like a vacation so that I can visit during my spring break.

So best friend, this is for you.

Winter break is soon enough and I’ll squeeze you again but until then, keep thriving.

Love you more,

Ryan