How to Maintain a Long-Distance Friendship
How to Maintain a Long-Distance Friendship
When you go travelling or live abroad for an extended period of time or you have a friend who moves country, it’s normal to think you’ll stay in touch. With the breadth of communication options available today, it’s hard to imagine that your friendship could suffer from being a long-distance one.
However, unless you make a concerted effort to look after a friendship, it can easily dwindle over time and diminish in importance until eventually all you actually do is check out each other’s Facebook updates.
So how best to avoid this happening to you? Like every relationship, friendships need a certain amount of maintenance. That’s not to say staying close should become a burden, just follow these tips to make sure distance doesn’t alter the close knits you share.
Regular Catch-ups
While apps like WhatsApp are fantastic for day-to-day messaging, be careful to avoid the trap of not speaking on a regular basis. Hearing a friend’s voice is so different to reading their words. You can share stories of your week much better in a real conversation and if you have anything serious to discuss, there’s no danger of written messages being misinterpreted. Sometimes it’s not possible to get the right tone when you’re writing an email, for example, and a hastily sent message could actually upset your friend if you’ve not thought carefully enough about how you phrase it.
With apps like Messenger, Skype and WhatsApp offering free voice calls, the cost of calling internationally is no longer an issue. We all know it’s sometimes hard to find time to talk, especially if there’s a time difference to consider, but work out a regular slot that is good for you both to have a chat, and make sure you schedule it into your diaries. Though this may sound a bit too clinical and endanger the spontaneity of your friendship, if it means you can stay in touch, it’ll be worth doing.
Send Real Gifts
Just because you live in another country, there’s no excuse not to mark special occasions such as birthdays or Christmas. Of course, the internet has made it so much easier to send gifts internationally, but many of us take the lazy option and send vouchers. It’s easy, but from a recipient’s point of view, a voucher doesn’t show you’ve given the gift much thought.
International gifts don’t have to lack imagination. Using a site such as FloraQueen makes it easy to pick out the perfect present for your friend and have it delivered to their door. The site specialises in international flowers delivery and has a huge selection of bouquets and floral arrangements to choose from. You know yourself the thrill you get when an unexpected florist delivery arrives for you; so make your friend’s day special in the same way. And if flowers aren’t your friend’s thing, then Floraqueen has plenty of other gift ideas to choose from.
Factor in Some Quality Time
Just because you live in a different country, it doesn’t mean you can’t get together every now and then. We all have a limited amount of holiday time, of course, but there’s nothing like spending time together to protect and nurture your friendship. If you can, arrange a shared holiday. You could visit each other or meet somewhere in the middle if it’s easier. With so many cheap flight options today, it’s no big deal to make a girls’ weekend in another country and enjoy discovering a city together, as long as your friend doesn’t live on the other side of the world.
When a friend is really important to you, it will be a wrench if one of you decides to live or work abroad. But if you really value the relationship, it’s worth going the extra mile to make sure your long-distance friendship remains a close one.
Title Image Credit: Pixabay