Rambles, Musings, and Other Attempts of Writing

Love Keeps the Friendship, Not Distance

I have this friend who I've been close with for years now. We've traded books, attended concerts and plays, slept over and had deep conversations into the night and the early hours of morning, had long road trips Disney sing-a-longs, made fun of her brother, babysat, and so much more together. We go back, and I absolutely adore her.

But she's a few years older than me. She spent two years at a local college, so we were still able to hang out as much as we did before. Then she was accepted into another college that she's been dreaming of attending for years, a college hours and hours away.

We spent the summer clinging to each other. We found excuses to make our road trips longer. We were quick to pair up for camp activities. Our teasing of her brother increased tenfold, much to his displeasure (but it's okay because he's practically my brother too). And then the day came when it was time for her to leave.

Our good-byes lasted about half an hour. There were lots of tears shed, and whenever we broke apart from a hug, we immediately went back in for another one. We had to be physically torn apart from each other so that our good-byes wouldn't go on for a full hour.

The weeks after she left were hard. It felt so strange to be doing things that we used to always do together, and it was like a part of me had been erased. We texted and called, but it wasn't the same as seeing her face to face.

And then she surprised everyone with a surprise visit yesterday. I spotted her down the hall at church, talking to my dad. I took off running and tackled her in a hug. We didn't break apart from each other for at least five minutes. We only had a few hours to spend together, but it was practically like she had never left.

She's one of my closest friends and one of my spiritual role models. She's intelligent, responsible, patient, kind, and so much more that I aspire to be. I've learned a lot from her in the time that we've known each other, and she has inspired me more than she even knows. It's difficult to be apart from her and not together so often like we used to be, but the short time that we spent together yesterday made me realize that distance doesn't make even the strongest of friendships fall apart, but heart and the love friends have for each other keep it together as if they had been together the entire time. The two of us will be just fine.

... That being said, I'm also super pumped for Thanksgiving Break so she can come back for an entire week XD