“Loving from a distance” is a phrase my mom uses all the time. She tells me that we can love others without actually having to be graced with their presence. Normally I take her advice when it comes to people that I am not particularly fond of. However after reflecting on recent events in my life, I have seen how this little phrase can have a very positive impact.
During my freshman year of college I happened to meet one of my very best friends. We met on the elevator and realized we were from the same hometown and also lived three doors down from each other in our dorm. That elevator ride changed everything because in that moment, even though I had no idea, I had just met someone that would become one of my dearest friends.
Our freshman year was coming to an end. After many conversations about her transferring, she finally told me it was true, she would no longer be attending our university. I remember crying and thinking, "how in the world we would stay friends?" Because apparently, three hours was light years away in my head. I feared we would completely lose our friendship. Instead, three years have gone by and we are closer than ever.
Even though I am three hours away from this person, I still get to pray for her. I still get to hope and wish that she would find the happiness and college experience she had set out to find, even if it was no longer by my side and at the school where we started together. Through this experience I have learned that you can literally love someone from a distance. In the last three years I have watched her completely fall in love with her sorority, find an amazing man to love, get an awesome new job, find a major she is passionate about and become the absolute best version of herself she can be. Even though I am not there physically, I experienced it all through many phone calls, hundreds of texts and endless visits over wine and catching up on the latest episodes of The Bachelor.
Would our relationship be half of what it is now if she had decided to stay? I have no clue. I can’t look back and wonder what could have been, what parties we could have taken over together or how many Sister Shubert rolls we would have consumed when we should have been studying. Or honestly, if our friendship would have fizzled out as many do over time. But I can look at the woman who I am best friends with today and say that she is happy, she is content, she is in the right place and she is becoming everything that God intended for her to be.
At the end of the day, I am ecstatic that my best friend transferred. We have definitely grown up but we absolutely have not grown apart. Loving her from a distance may have been the biggest blessing in disguise, and for that I am forever grateful.
