Relationships and friendships are some peoples’ main priority. Having a super close friend, sister, cousin, or even grandparent move away is difficult to go through. I talked to my peers and teachers about long distance relationships. As a high school administrator, Travis Fast has seen his fair share of student relationships, and Fast himself even has an old college friend that he still communicates with.
“I was kind of bummed when they moved away,” Fast said.
Brian, Fast’s college roommate and long distance friend, keeps in touch and even comes back to St. Louis routinely.
“They come back every 2-3 years we send each other funny texts. We’re both huge Cleveland Brown fans so we talk about football and stuff,” Fast said.
For Fast, the distance is just something to get used to.
“I mean we’re both grown, we just have to get over it,” Fast said.
Erica Spraggins, an administrative counselor, was asked for her input on long distance relationships, and she also has some good points. A close friend she met through her husband lives in Dallas, Texas. Spraggins meets with her twice a year and speaks often with her to deal with the separation.
“Since 2015 we maintain check in sessions with one another at least once a week,” Spraggins said.
Obviously, communication is something that really helps keep long distance relationships and friendships alive.
Sophia Chelist has a long distance relation with her boyfriend who lives in Nebraska.
Although Nebraska is far away, Chelist said, “I don’t really believe that distance is difficult to me. It just sometimes hurts, although I always have something to look forward to in the future like seeing him again and being with him.”
Chelist does find it difficult to make plans, as neither of them want to miss school, leaving them only breaks to see each other. In order to keep in contact and keep the relationship strong, Chelist and her boyfriend text all day and FaceTime all night.
Distance is hard to deal with when its with someone you truly love or care about and have established a really good relationship with, but you shouldn’t lose hope.
“Relationships that you make can be important, so with modern technology it can be easy to stay in touch and give a heads up every once in a while. Nice to communicate and get back together every once in a while,” Fast said.