Like millions of other teenagers, I’m now just over a month into my freshman year of college. Clearly, much is different—a new bed, different state, and of course, new friends. I’m still close with my “high school friends" as many call them (even though most have been in my life since I was a child), but our relationships have become very different.

We have to put work into communicating with each other. I don’t mean that have a conversation is hard, but rather scheduling a time to talk. I have some friends with whom I speak daily, though others have become weekly or even monthly occurrence. Especially when we have a group of three, there is a lot of “Can you do 3?” “No, I have a class at 3:30. 5?” “Nope, meeting with the advisor." It’s all very stressful.

We talk on the phone. I’ve never been a big phone person. Not because I don’t like it, but it’s just never been as convenient as texting. That is until we didn’t get to talk every day at school. Now we text each other asking if they’re free to talk because we need to hear the other’s voice. It’s hard in the obvious sense that we miss each other and want to be closer. In other ways, it’s really nice to know that you both care enough for each other that you’re wanting to have a real conversation in real time.

It’s hard to comprehend that your friends don’t fully understand your world. My best friend of 13 years has not and probably will never meet my roommate. That’s hard to deal with. I know about her life from what she’s told me, but all I’ve seen of her friends are 10-second Snapchat videos. Our lives are separate both in that we live five and a half hours away from each other, but also in that I have no idea how her daily interactions go.

I can’t fix their problems and they can’t fix mine. Granted, I probably couldn’t have fixed most of these things to begin with, but it feels far more helpless here. I can’t drive down to Pennsylvania to help my friend with an anatomy test, and she can’t come here to keep me company when I’m lonely. We’re suddenly forced into fixing our problems without the other by our side.

I miss them terribly. This isn’t a surprise, but it’s true. I miss them and their beautiful, dorky faces. I can’t wait to attack them in person instead of just text.