To my friends from home: Thank you.

To my friend who I still talk to everyday regardless of the distance, who I send screenshots of funny pictures to, and who I text to rant about anything and everything to: Thank you.

To my friend who I still call to edit my papers and who I can ask “Is this a word?”: Thank you.

To my friend who I, for no real reason, never communicate with more than with a daily “streak” snap (but somehow that manages to keep us up to date on each other’s lives): Thank you.

To my friend who will, under every single circumstance -- during a night out or in the laundry room or in the middle of an exam-- always pick up my facetime calls, even if just to say, “sorry can’t talk”: Thank you.

To my friend who I can text when I get nostalgic about high school, who I can reminisce with, and who I can cry or laugh with over the phone: Thank you.

To my friend who listens to my stories from college so intently that she can recite them all back to me: Thank you.

To my friend who probably thinks I couldn’t care less about them, based on how bad of a job I’ve done reaching out to them during the semester: Thank you.

To my friend who actively tries to visit me at school, even though my college is in bumblefuck: Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Home friends really are the best kinds of friends. Life can bring us to crazy, crazy places, but there’s a certain level of security and comfort in knowing that I’ll always have a handful of people who will be by my side.

“Keeping in touch” is an art that technology has made extremely simple. Yet many of us still fail to do it. Keeping in touch with home friends seems like a necessity in college, and it’s easy to think that a loss of communication between you and your home friends will result in a loss of connection. But this simply isn't true.

The beauty about home friends is that you don’t need 24/7 communication to still feel their love. It exists even when the circumstances prevent the normal amount of communication that friends are used to.

I’m not saying “Take your friends for granted! Don’t put in effort, they’ll still stick around.” That’s not my point at all. Keeping in touch is a beautiful thing, and it means a lot to all those involved.

My point is that home friends will always understand that long distance friendships are difficult. People get busy and schedules conflict and sometimes a 20-minute phone call just isn’t feasible.

But there’s something special about going long periods of time with little communication, but then picking up where you left off. This is just another reason why home friends are the best friends you'll ever have.