When I was young my family and I moved to Germany for one year due to my Father’s work. It was quite the experience. Saw many things and of course met many new, wonderful people. When I first moved back to America I had a few friends that I would try to call every once in a while over landline. But, because of the time difference and the difficulties of deciding when it is best for both of us those friendship seemed to fade.

But miraculously there was one friendship that managed to stay alive. It has been almost 8 years and Nici and I are still very much a part of one another’s lives. It was not easy at first; the first four years we kept contact just through writing letters back and forth. But, by the fifth year I was finally allowed to get a Facebook. Which opened up a whole new wonderful world of communication with Nici. It even brought some other friends back into my life that I thought I’d never hear from again.

From these long eight years I have some advice for those trying to keep a long distance friendship,

You will both need to put an equal amount of effort in keeping your friendship alive. Just like with any friendship it is annoying if you are the only one putting forth effort in a relationship. For it to work you both need to really want to be a part of each other’s lives.

You will go through longer period of times of not talking. But that’s okay, it doesn’t mean you love each other or think of one another any less. Life is busy and it just keeps getting busier as you grow up. There will be times where you are both busy and don’t have time to talk, but that doesn’t mean your friendship is over. Just realize that your friendship is different and cannot be treated the same as someone living in the same city as you.

Use Social Media! There are times where I just want to throw my phone out the window because of all the crap on there. But, social media has its perks. For me it is being able to see pictures of my friends that live across oceans from me. I can easily comment and almost feel a little more part of their lives.

The #1 app to go to is WhatsApp. WhatsApp is probably the best app out there for long distance friendships and relationships. Nici and I use this as our main source of communication. We can text and call through the app at no additional charge. We send voicemails a lot of times since the time difference makes it inconvenient to call one another. Our voicemails can be as long as we would like. It is super easy to send videos and pictures to one another too. WhatsApp has been my most favorite tool when it comes to a long distance friendship.

Of course it is hard to not be able to see your friend when you both are so far apart. But just because it is difficult it does not mean that your friendship is impossible. Nici is one of my closest friends and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. So don’t be afraid to try and commit to a long distance friendship. It may be well worth your while.