I’ve known them since I was 10. There were six of us in total. Together we invested in Club Penguin and Webkinz; together we naively fell under the Twilight spell (though we will all say it was because of Taylor Lautner). We helped each other through intense finals, grueling sports practices, school dances, college applications, and even the occasional family crisis. And eight years later, we walked across the stage at graduation. We weren’t together 24/7, we were together 24/7/8: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 8 years.
So, when the day came for us to leave for college, you could say it was a bit of a shock. People were no longer just a text away; they were a significant bank withdrawal, car-ride, TSA search, airline delay, plane connection away. And let me tell you, that takes a bit more than 10 minutes.
I’d been warned long before leaving that we all might lose touch. We’d all be busy. Plans are never 100% in college. People drift apart. But I never bought it.
Sure, maybe before cell phones, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Skype, it’d be easy to lose track of people. And, yeah, we weren’t going to be as close as we were in high school; that just isn’t possible when our schools are over 1,000 miles away from each other. But I never had the expectation of losing them altogether. I still don’t.
Why?
Because we’re all making the effort.
Friendships that dissolve after high school don’t do so on their own. People drift apart because they don’t make the effort to keep in touch. First phone calls go unanswered. Then text message responses become farther and farther apart. Until, finally, there’s a Facebook like or two, an occasional, generic Instagram comment, and the exchange of family Christmas Cards every December (if you can find their address in a lost email). And honestly, letting people go is far easier to do than keeping up with hectic schedules.
But after 8 years together, I won’t let the easy route tempt me to lose touch with the friends I call sisters. Even though we’re spread over four states and three time zones, I still want to know what’s going on. I still care about the Professor who didn’t round them; I still want to hear every detail about that boy in Bio 101; I still love gushing over the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
We keep in touch because we were all an important part of each other’s lives.
The distance between us is minor compared to the love and dedication we have for each other. And no matter how far away our future’s take us, I know they’re worth the effort.
