They say long-distance relationships are hard — but whoever says that has never tried to live without their bestie for more than a week. For many people, the season of summer oftentimes means the start of a long-distance phase of a relationship — more specifically, a friendship.

With people going home for the summer, people going to college, and the start of many internships, summer tends to be a huge time of transition. With that transition, friendships can sometimes be severed as a result of stress and a new wave of unfamiliarity, or a sense of starting over.

However, you don't have to clean out your friends in order to make new ones. Old friendships can always be maintained, no matter how far away you are. Especially this day in age. With all of the technology we have, it is possible to see people without being next to them, to hear them without being within earshot, and to know that someone cares without a hug around the neck.

My first long-distance friendship was when my best friend moved to Murfreesboro, Tennessee from Atlanta, Georgia the summer after our sophomore year. I will never forget how sad it was as we said goodbye to the empty house and I watched her drive away. Don't be fooled; I, of course, FaceTimed her that night.

While yes, it sucked not being down the street from her and not having her to stop me from making every stupid mistake, the long-distance thing was really not as bad as I thought it would be. I FaceTimed her most weeks, texted her often, had the occasional regular phone call, and of course snap-chatted her every day. Even though visits were not as often as I would have liked them to be, I knew we were going to make it.

Then, two years later, I moved and had to do the long-distance thing all over again, this time with more people to keep up with. And, I will be the first to admit that I didn't check in as much as I had planned to, and most certainly could have done a better job keeping up with people. Between school, sorority responsibilities, making new friends, and trying to keep up with my parents, I found it hard to find 30 minutes for each person each week. Of course, I didn't get to make any visits to my friends over freshman year due to a lack of planning skills and money.

So how do I still have any friends? The beauty of friendship is that they are most likely feeling the same things too. The daily Snapchat and occasional text to further than you think. FaceTimes were always made in dire situations, and visitation was just plain hard for all of us as we were getting adjusted. You know you've made the right friends when a few weeks without a word, and yet they pick up the phone as if nothing happened. Or better yet, when you see each other after a whole year and they know that you love them just as much as you did when you saw them every day.

Long distance friendships only get more frequent as life goes on — whether I'm in Atlanta or Knoxville, there are always people I love but am away from. The best part? I get to be surrounded by the most amazing people no matter where I go.