The long-distance friends are the really important ones. They are the ones who mean enough that distance won’t tear you apart. Going to college far from home means always being separated from some of your friends. When you’re at school, your long-distance friends are your home friends, and when you’re home, it’s your school friends who are far away. Of course it's hard not being able to see your friends at the drop of a hat, but we love our long-distance friends just the same!
There’s always something to remind you of them.
Maybe they gave you a letter that you taped to your bedroom wall as a reminder to keep your head up when times get tough. Maybe your song just came on the radio in the car and even if you’re alone you HAVE to belt it at the top of your lungs. Maybe that dingy ice cream shop on your jogging route reminds you of the sketchy Carvel where you met one of your best friends, who now lives over 1,000 miles away. Whatever it may be, it always calls to mind the happy memories of being with your long distance BFFs and it always puts a smile on your face!
There’s always a way to come together, even when you’re apart.
Being from southern New York and having a best friend in Buffalo means that eventually, her football team is going to play my football team. When that happens, we go AT IT, texting each other for the entire game! We trash talk each other's teams and cities, but even in doing that, we come together. Whether it’s a football game or a show you used to watch together, and now watch while Face-Timing each other, or even a quick call to say, “DID YOU SEE TAYLOR SWIFT’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH!?!?!?”, there’s always a reason to come together.
You can still call each other at three in the morning to vent.
Sometimes life gets rough. Sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes the only one who will understand how you’re feeling and what you’re going through is someone who is thousands of miles away. Your long-distance friends will always be on your side, because they know you in a way that no one else does.
Even when they’re REEEEALLY far away.
Like... really far. People join the Peace Corps and people decide to study abroad. Sometimes you end up with friends in multiple different time zones. You wake up to a message from a friend who just wanted to say, “I miss you," and you wonder for a moment why they were messaging you at three in the morning on a Tuesday, only to remember that you’re a solid fifteen hours ahead of them. Keeping in contact can get tricky when there are only a few hours in a day when you’re both awake, but when you care about someone, you make it work.
The excitement of planning a get-together gives you a high like no other.
You plan to spend a week with your long distance friends and the entire month leading up to the day you see each other is a countdown. You start texting each other in all caps to express your excitement and you can’t contain your joy at finally being able to see your long-distance BFF after months of withdrawal. It’s only February, but I’ve already started making summer plans to get together with my long-distance friends!
When you do finally get together, it’s 1,000 times more exciting.
Sure, I love my roommates. I love my school friends to death! Some of my favorite people in the world live within walking distance from me, but nothing compares to seeing my hometown best friend show up at my house, ready to take on a summer of adventures (which usually means sitting on a curb and drinking slurpees...) When a long-distance friend decides to surprise you by visiting your campus, the excitement simply can’t be contained!
There are always new stories to tell…
We all love our long-distance friends, but most of us don’t talk to them every day. When one friend lives in Upstate New York, another lives in Washington D.C. and a third lives in Pennsylvania, it’s guaranteed that getting together means whipping out all your craziest stories from the countless months that you’ve been separated.
…but you can pick up right where you left off!
You don’t have to talk to each other every day. Hell, you can go about your life only texting briefly once every few months when you’re apart, but the minute you get back together, you know that nothing has changed between you. You go to the same spots, order the same drinks and laugh at the same jokes you’ve always laughed at. Long-distance friends are the easiest to be around because no matter how long you go without seeing each other, there is never anything awkward about getting together. Even long silences aren’t awkward (because you’re probably using that time to make weird faces at each other until one of you cracks and giggles.) It’s easy, it’s natural and it’s always a good time.
Saying goodbye is bittersweet.
Of course it’s hard to say goodbye to your long-distance friends. We never want to be apart from our friends, but sometimes we have to. Long-distance friends are similar to the Trevi Fountain in Rome; they say that if you toss a coin into the fountain, you will come back to Rome. If you have enough love for your long-distance friends, you will see each other again.
But no matter the distance, the love will always be there.
I love my long-distance friends with all my heart. They’re better than butter. They’re idiots and they’re my favorite partners in crime! They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I know this to be true. Forever in our hearts, long-distance friends are the actual best.
