When you live several hundred miles away from your family and friends, FaceTime is a great way to get in contact with the people you love. I almost never directly call a person if I know them well because FaceTime is just so much better.

Here are some things you do when you FaceTime your best friend.

1. You start out by talking about random stuff you've done lately.

This can range from homework to what you were just doing before you called. Inevitably, this devolves, and you hop from topic to topic pretty quickly. Basically every call starts with, "Guess what I did!"

2. You play with your hair.

Or at least I do. I am very fidgety, so I have to be doing something at all times. When the conversation slows, I just create a new hairstyle.

3. You start planning trips together.

We plan trips to everywhere, basically. Weekend trips to Canada, seeing Broadway shows in New York, and even going to London and Scotland, at some point in the future.

4. You reminisce about all the weird stories you've experienced together.

We experience all the mutual awkwardness. We have to tell all those stories about events we've gone to and other random things that don't really have any relevance other than that they are fairly memorable.

5. You start singing.

Again, this might be a thing that only I do, but inevitably, over FaceTime, I will sing.

6. You start making faces.

The conversation sort of stops and you just sit there making faces into the camera.

7. You decide you should hang up like 12 times.

But you actually don't.

8. You start going through your phones as if you weren't FaceTiming.

I usually just start sending pictures to the person I am currently FaceTiming and ask them if they "remember this?"

9. You actually hang up.

But not without saying you'll call them again soon. I never want to hang up, so I have to set a time for the next call before I can get myself to do it.

There is always that moment after you hang up where you sit there wondering what you do next. But FaceTiming my friends is one of the best ways to deal with living far away from them. And, overall, it's just really fun.