Yesterday I said goodbye to my best friend for the last time before she moves into her dorm room at her university in Florida. We hugged, we cried, and we swore we'd keep in touch before I slammed my car door shut and drove away. The incident left me with a sudden overwhelming feeling of change, the kind where you know that everything in your life is about to go swirling out of control. It's both thrilling and terrifying.

For the past few months of summer, a lot of my friends have talked to me about how worried they are about keeping in contact with the people they knew and loved and high school. They're terrified that, with all the new and exciting aspects of college, old relationships will be relegated to the back burner. Every time someone has voiced this worry to me, my response is "You won't lose them if you try not to." I'd like to elaborate on that now.

Listen, long distance is hard for anyone, whether it be with a significant other, a friend, or even a family member or pet. You're going to miss the people that have been steady presences in your life; that's a given. But here's the thing: 'far away' does not mean 'gone.' In fact, with the technology available to us today, 'far away' doesn't even mean 'immediately inaccessible.' If you have a phone or a laptop, you have the ability to converse with your friend at all times. That's pretty incredible.

Of course, there are a couple of things to note here. Firstly, friendship is a two-way street. If both of you aren't willing to keep up with one another, it isn't going to work. Texts have to be read and responded to; calls may have to be scheduled if you want to have more than five minutes on the phone. Don't expect that your friendship will just stay the same. It won't, regardless of how hard you try. You're going to have to evolve your relationship if you want it to remain a part of your life (yes, like a Pokemon).

Second, some friendships aren't meant to be. If you have twenty besties back at home and zero nothing in common with any of them other than having gone to the same high school, you're probably going to struggle to keep those people in your life. My advice in that situation is to seriously evaluate how important it is to keep certain people in your life. You'll meet better, more interesting, and likely more compatible people in college, and you just have to accept that.

If you know your friendship isn't just there for convenience, if you truly want to keep someone in your life, there are a couple of things you have to do. As I said earlier, "You won't lose [your friends] if you try not to." Trying implies that you're going to have to work at it. Conversations won't come as easy now that you don't have all the same classes, and you're going to have to make peace with that fact. Understand that awkward silences are a part of the natural progression of your relationship and push through them. Try to form new connections with one another based on things other than high school. Evolve your friendship into something that can stand alone without the foundation it originally stood on, and you will be the better for it.

Sometimes, keeping up with one another can be difficult. You're slowly going to hear more and more about people you've never met, and the names will start to jumble in your brain. That's ok. It's not wrong to ask for a reminder. It's also not 'weird' to schedule a Skype call or even a phone call. I know our generation isn't super into the actual voice calls over texts, but I swear it's worth it. Take some time out of your busy schedule to catch up. If you work at it, and if it's really worth it, I promise your friendship isn't going to fall apart the minute you leave for college.