These days it seems like more and more of my friends are being added to the list of people I don’t see every day. It’s inevitable: school, work, and distance are all factors that add difficulty to spending time with friends who I used to see constantly. But there’s not a day that passes in which I don’t think of them and how they brought love and hope into my life. There are moments when I miss my long-distance friends dearly, but the memories of days spent with them keep me hopeful that we will make more in the future. I will always love my long-distance friends because they show me what being a true friend really means.
It may only be a lunch visit, but in that short time, our friendship picks up right where it left off. There’s an unspoken comfort in knowing we don’t have to go through awkward small talk. We can just be ourselves and launch into the latest and greatest gossip in our lives, even before our waiter introduces himself. So we cover the basics -- school, work, health -- quickly and get right back to where we started. It’s easier that way. If you spend the whole time explaining how much you missed each other, there no room to make new memories. It’s nice to know that someone’s actually interested to hear what’s happening in my life while I recap the last couple months without interruption. In return, it’s nice to hear how well my friends are doing; I’m always proud of the accomplishments they’ve made since our last visit. By the time the check arrives, we’ve exchanged every crazy adventure story and my muscles are sore from laughing so hard. In the short amount of time I can spend with my long-distance friends, we make the most of the time we have together.
Like in any relationship, communication is key; it’s easy to lose track of how many days it’s been since you talked to someone, especially when school or work is the first priority. It’s nice to know that I can text my long-distance friends every so often to catch up and there are no hard feelings. Even though we don’t talk every day, I know they’re there for me, just like I’m there for them. I don’t care how much time goes by, they can always call me. I will always be there for them, even if I’m not in the same state.
The most important thing I want my long-distance friends to know is that I don’t take our friendship for granted. I’m so thankful to have friends who are willing to carry our friendship across state borders and still be there for me when I need them. I understand why you can’t visit, because traveling is tiring and expensive, so I’ll settle for FaceTime whenever we have a minute in our busy lives. I can only hope that in the many years to come, our friendship will continue to grow, no matter where we are in the world. Henry David Thoreau said it perfectly: “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and the longitudes.”
