It’s been said that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Those words never appeared so true to me until my freshman year of college.

As summer came to a close, as per usual, my friend and I both prepared to go back to school. However, for the first time in thirteen years, we wouldn’t be going to the same school. For the past sixteen years, we had lived just a two-minute walk away from each other but now we were going to be a four-hour drive apart. We were going from living 350 feet away to over 250 miles away.

If you find a friendship worth keeping, you can never let distance and time keep you apart. With the help of texting and social media, it sometimes felt as if we were still very close. I could always count on the daily stream of less-than-flattering Snapchats to blow up my phone. We never stopped tagging each other in posts and having our normal texts and calls. However, no amount of technology could ever make up for our lack of face-to-face time. We couldn’t make late-night Sheetz runs or just chill for hours on a school night like we used to.

I’ve heard many people say that they get worried that their friends will go away to college, make new friends and forget about them. I’m glad that I never had this worry. We both made new friends (her more so than me) and they just became part of the conversation between the two of us. If anything, making new friends just gave us more to talk about and catch up on.

Luckily, we got to see each other every time she came home for breaks because I commuted to school. Unfortunately, we never had breaks at the same time. A few times, I tried to work it out so I could visit her for the weekend, but the plans always fell through. It wasn’t until she was done with school that I finally made my way out to see her. It was the week before I had finals and my friend's mom was driving out to pick her up from school. I had only had classes three days a week, so I got someone to cover my shift at work so I could tag along. We kept it a secret that I was coming and the screech and surprise when she saw me was priceless. Of course, we took an obligatory reunited selfie.

Overall, having a long-distance friendship can be hard, but it’s so worth it. Our friendship has never been stronger. We value our time together so much more and we have so much to talk about when we finally get together. Soon, she’ll go back to school and I’ll miss her like crazy, but our friendship will stay strong and thriving.