When you're growing up you meet someone that you create a special bond with. This person is the one person that you can truly always count on to be there for you -- the one who has witnessed you at your highest highs and lowest lows. The one person who truly gets you and can understand where you're coming from in any situation. This person happens to be your best friend. They're the person that often lives in the same environment as you, but in some cases they live hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
Living far away from your best friend can be really difficult and sometimes seem impossible, but if it's a true, long-lasting friendship it will prosper through any distance. Sure, you won't be able to see them every waking second of every day or easily talk to them about everything in your life, but that's the good thing about friendships -- you don't have to talk everynday or see each other all the time to remain friends. It's hard living far away from someone that you have such a strong bond with because that's the person that sometimes understands you better than you even understand yourself. But when you're down or need some kind of advice, a phone call is all it takes to be reunited with them.
The hardest thing about seeing your friend move off into a new environment and live away from you is seeing them make friends with new people. Seeing your best friend become close with someone else isn't always easy because it can make you feel like you're being replaced. But I can assure you that's not the case. In fact, the feeling is usually mutual because when your friend moves away you have to make new friends too, so remember that when you're looking at pictures of them and their new friends, they're doing the same and feeling the same way. The best thing to do is understand that it's good for them to have another close friend where they are now because they need someone who understands what their life is like in their new environment in order to be able to give them some advice that you might not be able to give them and to help them adjust to that environment.
Things change when you're no longer living close together. You don't know everyone in the stories anymore because you don't know everyone in their life anymore. You don't know absolutely everything that the other person is going through, and you no longer have those nights when you can just drive over to have someone listen to your late-night thoughts or go grab ice cream with simply because you're craving it. These things don't mean that you can't relate anymore, though. You might you are alone in going through different things with different people, but at one point or another your best friend has gone through that too. If not, I can assure you that they would be willing to listen to you vent about it and give you their perspective. You don't have to know everyone in the stories. All you have to do is be willing to listen. As for the late-night drives for ice cream, those cravings can be fulfilled when the two of you are finally reunited, and I can assure you that it's a little more special that way.
So sure, living far away from your best friend sucks because if they're your best friend you want to spend lots of time with them and see them a lot. The thing is a friendship isn't based on how much time you spend with someone; it's who is there for you the most and who gets you the best. The one person that you can always count on is your best friend, so when you live far away from them it's important to remain that person that they can count on even if it means 5 a.m. phone calls to talk and give that person some advice and listen to them. Overall, let go of the fact they live miles away and hold on to the next time that you will see them and look forward to the fun activities that you will take part in when you're finally reunited, because I can promise eventually you will be.
