Last night, a "Facebook" post showed up on my timeline that caught my eye:

"My 'best friend' who lives 17 minutes away from me acts like it's hard to make time for us. My best friend who lives an hour and a half away is coming to visit me today after she gets done with school because she misses me. It's all about the people who put forth the effort."

This realization hit me hard because it fit my life for the past year and a half pretty accurately. I thought I had a strong friend group in high school until we all graduated and haven't seen each other since that day. When I came home for breaks, I'd try to make plans with them so we could get caught up with each others' lives, which never happened. These 'friends' of several years would act like it was impossible to find a couple free hours in their day to meet up 20 minutes away from home, and my gosh it was frustrating. Getting blown off and having my plans completely forgotten by the people you used to hang out with all the time made me feel pretty pathetic.

I thought my college friends would start to follow that same trend now that I had gone home for the summer, eight hours away from Athens and six hours from just the Ohio border. Looking back now, those four months were actually the complete opposite. My old roommate transferred and when we said goodbye in May, I didn't know when we'd ever see each other again after that day. That was until we talked in the first week of July and she told me to visit her. (As if my parents would actually let me go on another 511-mile road trip, I thought.) Two weeks later, my parents amusingly waved me off as I hopped on the umpteenth bus that year for a total 11-hour journey to Columbus for the week. They expressed clearly that I was crazy for willingly spending two full days on the road for one person when we could've just gone to the beach 2 hours away for fun instead. (Can you tell that I'm extra?)

That week we spent together was the only week she had off work for the summer, and her family welcomed me in and treated me like one of their own in all of their sibling bowling competitions, pizza runs, car jam sessions, and mini golf tournaments. It was the most fun I had since leaving OU and was the perfect roomie reunion. I owe her so much for all that dedication. Those super long bus rides and getting to Columbus at 11:30 pm when I was achy and annoyed were all worth it for our friendship.

The fun part about it was that after arriving in Philadelphia from Columbus late at night and almost missing my transfer bus in Pittsburgh earlier (5.5 hours away from home), I got up at 6:30 am the next morning to spend the weekend in New Jersey with old friends so we could all go on a road trip to spend the next week at camp together. It all sounds like a headache, but this is what we do for the people we love and care about. I learned that it doesn't matter how busy life can get, no excuses when it comes to friendships. If my best friend was away for the entire summer at camp and still drove eight hours to PA and back to spend a week with me since we couldn't spend a summer apart, nothing could come between us.

One of my childhood best friends flew up to PA from Kansas every summer for three years in a row to visit me, and now we're reuniting after 4.5 years apart with our tradition of airport meetups (catch up scaring the security guards again with our reactions). 19 hours between us never stopped us from being soul sisters.

If someone truly cares about you, no time, distance or busy schedule will get in their way of being there for you. Plane tickets, bus rides, and long drives are just a small nuisance for the chance to spend time together and forgetting about life's hardships for a while; even if they have to be squeezed into last day before coffee breaks to get caught up before leaving each other for a month. The one thing college taught me is dedication. Dedication separates who's going to make an effort to be in my life, and who won't. They're the ones who got me through my worst days in life and cheered me on during my best days. I can't imagine my life today without them.

So when you have these type of people in life, cherish them. In 10 years from now, they could be your future bridesmaids, bridesmaids or godparents and you won't be able to picture how you ever lived without each other all those years before you first met.