There are many valuable things in life but one of the most valuable of all is friendship. Friendship is the emotions or conduct of friends; the state of being friends. Most of your friends you get to see daily. You should be grateful for that daily interaction. But I bet most of you have never even given it a thought. One of my best friends, Yunah (You-na), is an international student. That means she lives here during the school year and goes back to Korea, her home, for the summers. During the school year she does not get to see her parents or family or friends from back home. It can be difficult to maintain long distance relationships with so many important people. Then during the summer she must maintain long distance relationships with all her friends here in America and her family that she lives with during the school year. Another really good friend of mine, Madison, moved to Arizona and I have not seen her since December 19th last year. So decided to ask both girls a few questions on what it is like having long distance friends.

Interview #1
Me: How do you keep in touch with friends?
Yunah: I facebook with them or use instagram.
Me: Is it easy or hard?
Yunah: It’s not easy because of course I miss them and I feel like I’m missing the whole entire summer in America. So I feel bad.
Me: What is different between your friends here and your friends there?
Yunah: I spend about 10 months here and 2 months there. Therefore I feel like friends here are closer friends than friends there. Also, friends here treat me like I’m their best friend but the friends there treat me like I’m just a guest who is staying for 2 months there, so I can’t really get involved there.

Interview #2
Me: How do you keep in touch with friends?
Madison: I mainly keep in touch through text message or FaceTime
Me: Is it easy or hard?
Madison: It’s so hard actually. I’m used to seeing them everyday, getting hugs from them. And actually hearing their voice in person. It sucks.
Me: What is different between your friends here and your friends there?
Madison: My friends in Arizona are more outgoing and do a whole lot more activity wise. My friends back in Jersey are more chill and laid back. We could just pop in a movie or go sit at the mall for a bit.

Although I think it is difficult to do this and a con of this is that you lose the the physical interaction there are many benefits to this type of friendship. Your bond grows stronger. When there is a time difference, you’ll have to have conversations that aren’t just convenient for you. . You will have to make sacrifices, and the conversation that keeps you up at 3 in the morning is always worth it. Conversations won’t be meaningless because every second you have to talk to each other is important. You become aware of how precious time really is. It always gives you something to look forward to. You may not know the next time you will get to talk but you are going to look forward to whenever it is.