Friendships on any continent have their challenges, but just imagine what it's like when you're trying to navigate what it means to be friends with someone when you live oceans apart from each other! For many, long-distance friendships are impossible, but if you put in enough effort, you can make them work! And if you are in one of these relationships, you'll definitely agree that these eight things are true.
1. You have to schedule FaceTime "dates" because you can't just walk down the hall to say hi.
Madelyn Neal
There's a delicate balance in managing your local friends and making the time to talk to your friends overseas. Sometimes people just don't understand why you choose to stay in your room on the phone instead of going to parties!
2. Weirdly, they know a LOT about your local friends.
Madelyn Neal
Now in conversations when you want to spill the tea about so-and-so who did this to someone else, your international friend already knows who they are and most likely has a nickname for them to help them remember who you're always talking about. It makes it easier to finish your story faster and helps you to feel closer to each other despite the distance!
3. You're constantly making plans.
Madelyn Neal
Since you realize the only way you'll ever get to see each other is if one of you takes a 9-hour plane ride, you plan every second of your time to show them your world, favorite restaurants, and quick bits of your culture before they have to go back!
4. You never waste time fighting!
Madelyn Neal
Your limited time on the phone with each other is never spent arguing over petty disagreements, it's spent really appreciating all that you have in common and laughing a lot.
5. Your other friends can't understand how you can be so close to someone you never see in person.
Madelyn Neal
In fact, for many of us, we hardly spend any time together. One of my best friends is a girl I've only seen about four times over the years, but nevertheless, we definitely have one of those lifelong connections!
6. You're always working with a slight language barrier.
Madelyn Neal
In almost every conversation you have, there are at least a few minutes fumbling around and trying to explain a word to each other that doesn't quite translate to other languages.
7. You ask them every day if they suddenly have plans to move across the world.
Madelyn Neal
You can't help but try to convince them to pack up everything they own and ship it all across the world just so you can hang out more than once every couple years!
8. You wouldn't change a thing about it!
Madelyn Neal
Having a friend from a different country not only gives you such a great understanding for their culture and an appreciation for global diversity, but you also see how lucky you are to have a friend like them, even with all the distance in between!
These friendships certainly come with their own challenges, but it is clear to you that you wouldn't have it any other way! Despite thousands of miles in between, you keep making future plans because one day you know you won't be long distance! And even if you are, you love them anyway!
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