Unbelievable as it may be, it is almost time for a new Fall semester to begin. All over the place people, students will be packing up their stuff and moving back to school, where they will meet up with the friends they have desperately missed over these long summer months. Unfortunately, not all friend groups will be fully reunited once the semester commences.
For many people, the school year is just another reminder that their very best friend lives hundreds of miles from them. Bi-coastal best friends are some of the most difficult relationships out there. Fate decides to introduce you to person who is the ying to your yang, the chocolate to your peanut butter, the Mooney to your Padfoot, then sends her 1,019 miles away from you after you just got close. Or is that one just me? Its true, one of my very best friends lives 1,019 miles away from me and it is the absolute worst. Hope was my roommate my freshman year: she's fiercely intelligent, ridiculously funny, and is honest with me in a way only a true friend would be if they loved you. She came to see me when I lived in Britain, I visit her and her ASTONISHING family once a year, we spend hours each week texting/skyping/talking on the phone, but it still doesn't keep me from missing her when the year starts.
There are the obvious downsides to not having Hope with me 24/7. For starters, my jokes are barely funny in person and they definitely don't translate as well through text. I find a plethora of topics funny and her poor phone is assaulted daily with stupid memes, buzzfeed lists, and other assorted internet garbage that I could easily just show her if we were together. Same goes for guys; it's hard to talk about boys over the phone when she can't creepily stalk them for me around campus. (Side-note; that's what best friends do). Getting stressed and upset is harder because talking in person is completely different than getting disgustingly upset in person. She's there for me no matter what and I miss her.
There are also some positives to living far off from a friend. For starters, I love getting to visit Hope and her family. Not only is her hometown relaxing, but I am almost as close with her mother, father, and one older brother as I am with her. Visiting is like reentering a whole new family that is funny, charming, and doesn't mind my loudness. Being apart also makes it easier for me and Hope to meet up in exciting places, like when she visited me in London. Most importantly, being apart has shown me exactly how close the pair of us are. We actively choose to stay in contact because we miss each other. Sure its hard to be apart, but we still reach out whenever something exciting, startling, or down right scary happens. Take the follwing as an example:
She is not a fan of frogs.
Regardless of how far apart you are, everyone knows it sucks not having all the people you love near you all the time. All we can do is keep pur heads held high, out hearts open, and send each other these wonderful frog updates.
