Being away from your best friend isn’t fun. If you are like me and end up moving away, not being around your closest friend will be one of the hardest things to adjust to. Being the friend who not only moved to another city but an entirely different state, I know the ups and downs of being apart and only being able to see each other a few times a year.
Drawing from my personal experience, I have found a few things to maintain your long-distance relationship. It is not always easy, and sometimes we are both so overwhelmed by our lives that we go days without communicating, but rest assured that when we do, it is the best feeling in the world because we can finally be ourselves.
Below are my four tips in order to maintain a long-distance relationship with your best friend.
Communication is key
It is important to find the time to communicate to maintain your friendship. Texting every day can be a challenge for some people, but checking in on each other on a regular basis is a great way to stay in touch. Even if you don’t like to text, schedule a phone call, Facetime or send photos of what you are doing during the day – it will be greatly appreciated!
Plan a getaway
Being long-distance means not being able to see each other as often as you’d like. We all have busy schedules, whether you’re working or studying, and as a result, even maintaining calls, texts and messages to stay in contact can be testing. A solution can be to plan a getaway with your bestie. Escape from real life for a few days and immerse yourselves somewhere else in the world. The most important thing is not where you are going, but that you are doing it with your friend.
Sharing is caring
It can be difficult to have the same day-to-day experiences, so what you want to do is share new experiences instead. Big or small news, random things you see during the day – this will ensure you stay close. When we are away, we can feel detached from our old life and habits, so talking to someone that is still there and cares about us can make us go back, even if only for a moment. This is why sharing is so vital because it allows you to be involved in each other’s life, even if separated by an entire ocean.
Have faith in your friendship
Questioning your friendship is normal. When separated by different regions, schedules and time zones, it is easy to feel left behind. Add social media to the mix, where stories and feed posts show the new life your bestie is building, and you may feel you have no part in it. My advice, once again, is to communicate – talk to your friend, reach out to them because it is highly likely they feel the same way.
Most importantly, to not be jealous of any new friends in their life. It can be hard to face the fact that there are people who can see, talk and enjoy your friend’s presence when you cannot, but that does not mean that your long-distance best friend is not thinking about you or how much they wish you could be there.
Hopefully, following these four steps can make you feel more secure in your long-distance friend, as it did for me.
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Written by Elena Leodori
Illustrated by Francesca Mariama
