5 Ways To Stay In Contact With Friends Who Live Far Away

By Ellen Scheidt

Whether you have just moved away for the first time to go to college or you are currently suffering through the confusing gray area of post-grad-real world-realization, I’m sure that you are trying your hardest to maintain close friendships. If you are anything like me, your best friends from all stages of life have taken it upon themselves to scatter across the country to different time zones, only to make your life-long friendship harder to cultivate. Luckily we have come up with some creative ways to maintain regular communication without losing touch. Here’s how:

1. Veto the group text message: instead of blowing up each other’s shit via iMessage group chat, download an app called GroupMe. This deters any resentment that you may feel during an important work meeting when your phone is vibrating like a lonely house wife’s purse. The app will send you a quiet notification that you have 145 unread messages that you can read at your own leisure.

2. FaceTime: Schedule wine nights via FaceTime. No, this isn’t drinking alone because you are technically catching up with your college roommate’s relationship drama. *Pour yourself another glass while you give her advice about that troll from work.* The cyber date is also able to give you a nostalgic #tbt to the times that you two actually spent together on the couch exchanging gossip.

3. G Chat: Now that you are in the professional world, this can be a modern day AIM for you to catch up incognito. If your boss walks into your office and you are typing away, no one needs to know that you are actually getting advice about what kind of juicer to buy before your vacation. For all your co-workers know, you are just really into writing this time sensitive report.

4. Phone calls: I know that this is the most obvious one of them all, but utilize your time wisely. Call your best friend from a different stage of your life on your way home from work, if you are lucky, the two of you will be on the same schedule. If you live in different time zones then utilize your after work relaxation time to reach out.

5. US postal service: There is nothing wrong with a little old school. Sending and receiving tangible mail is more personal than anything that you can send via email. Print out pictures from a recent visit and send them in a card to your friend’s apartment so she can frame them. Send a care package with a hand-written note if she’s going through a break up. Or, send a note just because you want to remind her how great of a friend she is to you.