Does moving away to school have to mean saying goodbye to best friends you grew up with? My hometown friends and I stuck together despite whatever high school drama came our way. Some of us met in elementary school, surviving the awkward pre-teen years together. Shouldn't getting through these milestones mean our friendships can last one more? Now enrolled in colleges spread out along the east coast, we continue to work at making it long distance. Sometimes it's a challenge, but it's so fulfilling to be able to have friends who've known me since childhood who will always be there.
It's been three full years since high school graduation. By now, summer breaks no longer mean we're all back in town. So many people lose touch with old friends. Supposedly, hometown buddies are relationships of a simpler kind—everything picks up where it left off. But once I officially moved out to my college city, something occurred to me: What if I'm never living in the same place as my decade-long friends?
The band of five may have physically separated, but this doesn't mean we don't stay connected. This does mean, though, that we have to get creative with how we maintain our friendships. Liking Instagram pictures and midnight birthday calls are the small stuff. We use FaceTime, Skype, Snapchat, any method, really. Of course, there are more important factors that keep ties strong, like visits to different schools, planning trips home at the same time, and keeping in touch with each other's families. Between Providence and Pittsburgh, we mail handwritten letters to keep it interesting. As a whole, the group always knows what big news is going on in each other's lives. Honestly, this doesn't always cut it since we were used to seeing each other every day. We text about things that aren't all that important, like references to ancient inside jokes, and talk more often so no news is too surprising.
Mutual efforts are made to keep up communication, but at the same time, we don't really want to be restricted from making more friends. I never thought that old ties had to be lost even if college is about meeting new people. Letting more people in shouldn't call for replacing the old. So, we wanted to stay close but don't exactly need to be as close as we used to be. Being able to maintain relationships regardless of our growing differences and lifestyles has created even stronger bonds. Technology, new and old, grants so much access to ways of communicating—take advantage of it.
