By Brianna Zins, Contributing Writer
Long distance is one of those things that usually comes with a negative connotation. It’s hard to find time to talk to the person, and even worse, you never get to be there with the person. Only communicating through texts and phone calls can get impersonal, and you start to miss the person physically being there with you. This is why distance usually takes a toll on any relationship, whether it be a friendship or a boyfriend/girlfriend. I knew that moving away from home would mean that all of my friendships I had made there would now be long distance. It would be harder to talk to all of my friends now and I would even run the risk of losing some of them.
I met my best friend at theatre rehearsals in high school and it was like we had known each other our whole lives. We would hang out together all the time, be around each other, go places, and spend the night every weekend. Our bond is something really special to me, and I’m so grateful I met her and that she’s in my life. I tell her everything, and she’s able to trust me enough to do the same. We never really texted much and would have a better time hanging out face to face, which was easy when I was still living down the street from her.I was a grade ahead of her, so we weren’t able to go to college at the same time. Since we both want to be different things in life anyways, we’re never going to end up at the same college. When I left for school I was scared that the distance was going to do something to our friendship.
We had never really texted, unless it was to make plans to hang out, and now that would be our primary source of communicating. This a major change in both our lives, and even though she was happy for me, it was difficult at first. It was the middle of the school year for her, so she was always busy with homework and tests. I, on the other hand, was busy with adjusting to the school and trying to stay ahead on my never ending pile of homework. There was really never time for either of us to talk, which became frustrating after a while. I was scared of what this could mean for us, since she wasn’t a person I wanted to lose in my life.
I expressed these concerns to her and she told me she had been feeling the same way. We started making time for each other to talk on the phone and things started to get better. When I had gotten the chance to go back to Florida, she was one of the first people I saw and it was like I had never left.
Long distance is one of those things that comes with life that just really sucks. The challenge that you’re both facing can be really scary, especially since you don’t know if it will work. But when you put in the time and effort, things can really work out. You just have to care enough to make it work.
