My Best Friend Goes To School 117 Miles Away, But It's Only Strengthened Our Friendship

Let me start with how we met:

Eliza and I met in 3rd grade on a snow day. My younger brother and I were sledding down the hill at the front of our house, which happens to face the back of Eliza's backyard. While we were enjoying zipping down the hill on our sleds, she wasn't having as much fun because her backyard was totally flat.

Picture this; my mom walks out our front door and sees our neighbor lying on an inner tube in the middle of her yard, catching snowflakes in her mouth, looking extremely bored. To be completely honest about this part next part, my mom basically told me I had to invite her over.

This sounds very harsh, but at the time I didn't really know Eliza, and being the shy little kid I was, I was nervous to invite her to come sledding. Never did I know that once I did, it would have started a road of 10 years of friendship for us.

Since that day, Eliza and I have been inseparable; so much so that one time she got in trouble and we tried to make a zip line between our yards and pass notes in a bucket...this didn't really work because she lived across the street from me, but you get the point.

We've gone on family vacations together, gone to each other's family functions (where even my family members consider her apart of the family now), made endless inside jokes, experienced the embarrassing two years of middle school, and suffered our way through high school.

Andi Mazzarella

Now that we have gotten to college, I haven't seen my other half in over three months, which is the longest we've ever gone without seeing each other. She goes to school at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York, which is about 117 miles away from Philadelphia, where I attend school at Temple University.

Because of this distance, we've only been able to see each other over Thanksgiving and Christmas break. It's been weird having to go months without our long night drives, singing One Direction on our way to get ice cream.

Living this far apart I feel has made our friendship stronger. Whenever we are fortunate enough to see each other in person, we gush over our college experiences and pick everything up where we left off from the last time we saw each other.

I do love though when I get a FaceTime call from her while I'm here at school. Usually, it's to tell each other the most recent drama in our lives, or our most recent call, freaking out about the Jonas Brothers reunion. This makes me feel a bit closer to her after not being able to see after what feels like forever

Though we are so far apart right now, I couldn't imagine calling anyone else my "sister". I can't wait to see her again soon. Miss ya like crazy E!