In January of 2016, my best friend and her family packed up and moved to Germany. I was so excited for them, but I miss them dearly and I always will.

Luckily, maintaining a long distance friendship in this day in age is not too difficult. We still interact on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp daily and they never feel too far away.

Though we keep in touch on a daily basis, there are still a few things that long-distance friendship has taught me.

1. Effort is key.

The most simple way to maintain any friendship, not only a long distance one, is effort. Even the most simple acts can reaffirm a friendship. Send them a text expressing how much you care or even send a simple meme that brought them to mind.

2. Pay attention to time zones.

My best friend is six hours ahead of me. This makes communication difficult sometimes but referring back to number one: effort is key. Even if I see that it is late or early where she is, I still send her messages, knowing she will still eventually see them and respond.

3. It can open so many doors!

While I miss my friend daily and wish she still lived 15 minutes away, her voyage to another country has given me new opportunities. This spring break I will be going to visit her and that will be the first time I have ever left the country. To me, that is pretty amazing.

Overall, it was hard to adjust to my best friend being 4,000 miles away, but I think that in the long run it has made our friendship even stronger and it has opened doors for the both of us.