FaceTime will never compare to face time. Seeing your smile and hearing your laugh through the screen of an iPhone will never compare to sitting on the couch together at 1 am talking about everything under the moon and stars. There is not a day goes by that I don’t want to talk to you, vent to you, laugh with you, and to just be with you. The issue, of course, is that long distance friendships stop all of these wants from coming to fruition most of the time.

Despite the fact that I never get to see you, you are still my best friend. You are still the person that understands me the most, the person that I can tell an entire story to without ever speaking a word. Just because we don’t see each other every day doesn’t mean that bond has broken, and honestly, I don’t think it ever will.

You know that you’ve truly found a best friend when, after months of never seeing each other, weeks of not texting or talking, you can pick up right where you left off. It’s never awkward. There’s never an adjustment period. It’s just two best friends the way they have always been and that is such a beautiful phenomenon that so few of us are blessed to experience.

Friendship isn’t about how the other person benefits you. It’s not about who can get the best birthday present for the other and it’s surely not a competition. Being best friends is about being the other’s other half. It’s about being the balance that they need and them being yours. It’s the ability to be the only person on this planet to calm the storm of their anger while simultaneously being the one person that is able to egg them on farther than anyone else. And even more insanely, they are that same person for you.

Friendship is being able to call them crying at two in the morning because you watched a video about puppy dogs and you can’t stop crying. Friendship is when they watch it too just so you don’t have to be emotional alone. Friendship is every goofy post they tag you in on Facebook and every Odyssey article that makes them think of you because that means that they are thinking of you.

They don’t care who that girl is that doesn’t like you, they don’t care how cute that boy was, or how wrong you were in that argument with whoever. They always take your side. They may tell you all day long how you were wrong and how you should have acted differently or done something different, but when push comes to shove, the moment they hear about someone being mean to you or bad mouthing you, your best friend finds a way to come to your rescue, be it in person or just texting you confidence boosters.

In all, a long distance best friend is both a blessing and a curse. A curse because seeing your other half becomes an annual event. A special day reserved for Christmas and Summer breaks. It’s a tragedy to lose so much time with loved ones. However, the time apart just helps to bring you closer. Being so far away forces you to bond on levels that are less superficial. Lesser friends fade away behind state lines. I could not love friends more than those I never get to see.