My dearest best friend,

They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder, and in regards to our friendship, I agree.

Though I left for school in August, I never really considered that we were distant until you left for basic training the week of Thanksgiving. When I moved from our small town in 10^th grade to a city an hour north, I still felt like you were close to me. After all, we had the potential to spend a weekend at one of our houses, since we didn’t live terribly far from one another. We texted every day from the minute I took my last steps out of my old high school until the moment that you left for Basic. When we would visit each other’s houses on the occasional weekend, it would almost assuredly involve pizza, Chick-fil-a or taking silly pictures and videos on our laptop cameras. When I moved to college, I knew you were still relatively close by—only a three hour drive away— and we planned to see each other once before you shipped out. I always knew you were in my corner cheering me on through the good and the bad, and I was assuredly in your corner doing the same for you. I always felt you were near me even when physical distance set us apart.

Then you left on Monday, the 21^st of November.

They took away most of your possessions, including the phone that you used to stay in touch during high school. We wrote letters, but it wasn’t the same. So many things happened in those nine weeks of muted conversation that I wanted to tell you about—like how much I enjoyed the weather a particular day or my struggle with loneliness. I desired to have an ongoing conversation with you throughout the day, yet you were 2000 miles away at an Air Force base being yelled at for making your bed wrong. I was upset that we couldn’t make consistent conversation like we would when we were young because we needed one another as lifelines as we were wading through a tempest of adjusting to new lives.

Then the glorious day arrived. I woke up that morning to find that you had sent me a text! I was overjoyed, in fact thrilled, that I could finally talk to you all the time like we did before. I wanted to update you on everything. I wrote a paragraph-long text message to you describing my day alone. I was excited to hear a response back from you, and I remember constantly checking my phone that day anticipating the long awaited text back.

I got your response that next morning after my first class, around 9 a.m. Not only did you respond to what I told you, but you also apologized for your delayed reply. You explained to me that though you were done with basic, you still had classes to attend and conditioning to do for flight school.

That was the moment I realized we are adults.

Our lives are no longer synchronized with one another. Our schedules are vastly different, and our occupations are taking us on different paths. No longer do we share the same free time like we did before, but rather we have to schedule time for Skype dates and expect that responses to texts might be delayed for many hours, sometimes days. Before, I had naïvely believed that we would always be together, but in actuality, physical and communicative distance is more difficult than I gave it credit for. Maintaining a long distance friendship is rough, and quite frankly, it sucks. I want to know about everything you’re doing, and I want to share what I’m doing with you, and it’s difficult to do such a thing when we’re leading completely different lives.

As much as it is difficult, this has made me appreciate and value our friendship at a whole new level. I often took our friendship for granted and would sometimes slip into apathy. But when I look back on the 10 years we have spent being friends, you were there for everything. You brought laughter when all I wanted to do was cry and then promptly offered your shoulder for me. You gave me advice and wisdom that I needed to hear. You motivated me to overcome my fears. You rejoiced in my successes and helped me back up after my failures.

I talk about these things as though they were past tense, but in reality, you are still there through those moments. Though the communication isn’t as consistent, your patience, love and wisdom are still there when I need it most. The fire that keeps our friendship alive is a mutual care for one another’s well-being and spiritual wholeness—a fire that cannot be contained by life circumstances.

I am thankful for our friendship, and I can say for a fact that our friendship is one that will stand the test of time. As difficult as distance has been for the both of us, I believe that one day we will be the little old ladies sitting in a rocking-chair, knitting scarves and sipping tea while reminiscing upon our lives and discussing beautiful things. Our friendship will stand the test of time no matter where the Air Force will station you or where my future career will take me.

I am truly blessed to call you my best friend, and I am willing to work to keep our friendship alive and well. I love you like a sister, and I cannot imagine what life would be like without you. All that sounds cliché and sappy, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart. You’re my person, and I am so happy to be embarking in life with you, even if we’re headed in different directions.