Having a long distance best friend is not easy at all. In fact, it actually really sucks. I mean who wouldn’t want to live within a reasonable driving distance from the person that they tell everything to and who understands? I know I wish I lived closer than 12 hours away from mine. It’s easy for other people who don’t understand to brush long-distance friends under the rug. Your other friends always hear about this mysterious person who lives however many states away. They hear this person’s name come up on a regular basis and more than likely, they probably all think your BFF is super cool and would love to meet them. Unfortunately life isn’t always fair, and you don’t always get to live in the same city, or even same state as the people you really care about.
You have to rely on technology.
You guys text or Snapchat each other every single day. I mean, what other way are you going to let your friend know just how amazing the pizza you just ate was if she wasn’t there to share it with you?! Not to mention, you send small novels back and forth describing every detail of first dates, crazy nights out, or maybe even the new movie you just went to see. It helps you guys feel connected and stay updated on your lives. It’s almost like they are there with you. Almost.
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Then there's those Skype conversations that last for hours on end. Don’t start a FaceTime or Skype call if you have a time limit, because you know that sucker is going to last all night and maybe on into the morning. You don’t get to see each others faces often, so you have to soak up what you can get
When you want to go on an adventure, whether it be one day you wake up ready for a road trip, or you just want ice cream at 2 in the morning, the one person you know would totally be down for it isn’t there.
But, you guys make up for it by texting about exactly how it would go if you could go together.
You don’t know when you’ll be able to see each other again.
Will it be in one month? Six? A year? It sucks being unsure of the next time you’ll physically be there with one of your favorite people. However, you guys already have tons of ideas planned for when you get back together.
When one of you is going through something difficult in your lives, you can’t get to each other.
Sometimes you just want to be able to hug your best friend and snuggle up with a movie and pint of ice cream together. It’s really hard to be so far away and not be able to drop everything and get to each other when you need it. But you make up for that with surprise gifts in the mail and a string of encouraging text messages to keep each other’s morale up. It always helps to throw on the “Don’t worry, it’s only a few months until we see each other again!”
To maintain a friendship from such a distance takes a lot of work. Both of you have to put in equal amounts of effort if you want the friendship to stay strong. Luckily, we know that at the end of the day we can count on each other, and even if we can’t be together in person, we’re always just a phone call away.
