During the school year it's tough to keep up with friends and family from home and the summertime brings the struggle of doing the same for college friends. This is especially hard when you go to school far away or out of state, but merely having the typically busy life of a college student presents a challenge. However, we have so many ways to prevent this. Those awkward moments every school break at home or new semester when you see friends and realize you haven't talked to or seen them outside of the rare text or short email in months.
But I'm not here to pick on using text or email. In fact, it that sort of thing actually works then there's no problem. We can use those just as well as a phone call or snail mail. The medium isn't as important as the actual action. The truth is, I think we just forget. Even if we're not a busy as we say or think we are, it's so easy to get caught up in our daily grind and frantic schedules. Keeping up with our friends, the ones close by like our families or roommates and the one farther flung, beyond a quiet wondering of "oh hey, I wonder what my high school pals are doing now" is so far from our minds.
This is certainly something I'm guilty of. Last school year I didn't keep up with my best friend as well as I should have and missed the fact that she'd gotten a new phone. Thus I hadn't a clue when I finally did start trying to call that I was using the wrong number. Instead of trying harder and doing something about it, I let my life take over and forgot. At Christmas, we both laughed over our shared inability to communicate. But it's still strikes me as a little pathetic that neither of us took the initiative to (or even thought to!) devote a little valuable time to writing and sending an email or letter.
So that's a little confession on my part that I'm not so good at it. This why keeping it touch is so hard: we let ourselves forget. But, despite my lackluster record of following through with it, I think friendship is important. I'm not the extroverted, always outgoing person, but I still value it. My best friend reminds my of the better parts of my childhood. Last year's summer roommate is almost the opposite of me and it's the greatest thing ever. We laugh together and talk about big ideas. There's one girl who I've known since freshmen year as the best encouragement and sunshine in my life.
I've decided to do the hard thing and remember. I'm going to visit, grab lunches, make phone calls, and write long letters and emails. It'd be cool if other people did the same. It boils down to this: Most of the time, we don't have a good reason not to keep in touch. I know, it's a pain and life is busy. And it's awkward, at least at first, to be "That Person" who makes random phone calls out of the blue just to ask what's up. Still, that's the kind of person I'd like to be.
