Do you know how much being far away from your friends can impact the relationship? Here’s what you need to know about a long distance friendship.
You and your BFF can be separated for a number of different reasons. Maybe they got into a school far away or their family moved. They could even get a job thousands of miles away from you. For that reasons, it’s important to know the ongoing of a long distance friendship.
Does it actually last? How strong does a friendship really have to be to survive such distances? It can be a little scary thinking your best friend might be taken away for good but have no fear. So long as you know how to keep the friendship alive, you’ll be just fine.
Friendships take a lot of time and effort
They’re not just these simple little things we have in our lives. Our friendships make up a huge part of our happiness. Without them, we’d be really lonely – even if you have a significant other. Friends are just on a different level completely.
But that means you have to try a lot harder to keep your friendship active if you can’t see each other as often. There are other steps you have to take to ensure you don’t lose out on a fantastic friend.
Can a long distance friendship actually remain the same?
Short answer: absolutely. Long answer: it’ll take a lot of trial and error to see what works best for you and your friend. You’ll have to do a lot of things you’re not typically used to with them. Luckily, we have all the tips you’ll need to make a long distance friendship remain untouched for years on end.
1 Text and call regularly. This is extremely important. You have to stay connected in the same ways you did before. Just because they live far away doesn’t mean you need to cease all forms of communication. In fact, you need to do it more now. So be on top it and make sure you chat regularly.
2 Become pen pals. You might not get this one at first, but hang in there. Your friend lives really far away and you can’t do the stuff you used to in order to bond. Well, writing letters as pen pals is a perfect way to do that!
You can bond and share a lot of deeper stuff when writing because it’s less intimidating than in text. Share secrets and just talk about life. It’ll also be nice to have those memories later on.
3 Snapchat frequently. Or just send photos on whatever app you can. Snapchat just so happens to be a fantastic way to communicate in small bursts that feels more connected. Even if they’re half a world away, they’ll feel like they’re right next to you when you can see their face. This will help you feel close and connected with your BFF.
4 Video chat. Another way to stay connected is to video chat. Talking on the phone and texting is fun and all but it’s not the same as a face-to-face conversation. Now, this isn’t exactly that, but it’s as close as it gets when you have a long distance friendship.
5 Watch movies on the same nights. This is to maintain some sense of being there with them. If you used to go to the movies a lot as friends, keep doing it. You don’t have to be sitting right next to each other to see a movie on the same day and discuss it. This really helps you both feel like nothing has changed even when you’re far away.
6 Send each other funny memes. For some reason, this helps more friendships than a lot of other things. A lot of the time, we don’t have much happening in our lives worth a phone call or video chat.
That means you might not be talking as much as you were when you saw each other frequently. What you can do instead, however, is send each other funny memes. You can keep each other entertained from far away.
7 Talk about major world news and events. You can’t just do the small talk and expect your friendship to never change. If you talked about this major stuff before, keep talking about it. It’s important to maintain a strong emotional connection when you have a long distance friendship and talking about touchy subjects will do just that.
8 Update them on your life and vice versa. Even the small things. If you don’t think it matters, still talk to them about it. When they lived closer to you, they got to see and hear a lot about your life just by being in it.
Well, they’re not really there anymore. So even if you think the stuff isn’t valid, bring it up anyway. Chances are, they’ll be happy to hear about it no matter what. This is another thing that creates the illusion that you’re still very close.
9 Reminisce about fun things in the past. In order to keep your friendship alive, remember all the good things. Not only will it make you both really happy, but it’ll make you strive for those times again. When you have that motivation, you’ll put forth more of an effort to keep your friendship strong.
10 Maintain connections with their family if you were close. If you could walk into their parents’ house and grab something out of the fridge when they were living near you, keep doing it. Obviously, you may want to at least send a courtesy text, but you should still have a strong relationship with their family if you did previously.
11 Take trips together. Go visit them whenever you can and have them see you whenever they can. You can even plan vacations and meet up somewhere instead. Even though they live far away, you still want to see them in person every now and then. This gives you time to catch up and normalize your relationship before going separate ways again.
12 Do everything you would do if you were able to see each other. To a certain degree, obviously. The point is, don’t let things change just because an address did. Send each other pictures, text about your relationships, call them drunk and tell them you love them. Make sure they know nothing is changing just because you’re no longer in the same zip code.
The truth is, maintaining a long distance friendship is a lot like making a long distance romantic relationship work. You have to do things to stay connected and strengthen your relationship every day.
