If you had told me one year ago that I would be Skyping with my best friend that lived 10,000 miles away, crying over fictional superheroes; I would have laughed in your face.

However, life is funny like that sometimes.

My best friend Alana lives in Australia. I live in Alabama.

The distance that separates us is about 9,100 Miles, but sometimes it feels so much further. We’ve only been friends for a year, and yet I feel as if we have been friends for 150.

Over the past year of our friendship, Alana and I have discovered that we are basically the same human being simply separated by a very big body of water.

Our friendship is one that baffles both of us to this day, nearly a year after our first meeting.

How on earth could two people living so far apart, become so close so quickly and stay just as close as they were when they were together?

The simple answer is that we care about one another.

Alana and I genuinely appreciate each other and understand that sometimes life is difficult, especially with such a great distance separating us.

However, we also know that friendships like ours are once in a lifetime opportunity.

Skype definitely makes having a long distance friendship easier, and there are many times when we will catch ourselves on the computer for five or six hours.

While not having your best friend close enough to see on even a monthly basis is extremely difficult, I have found that it makes our friendship stronger.

Not being able to see one another in person, or even speak to one another on a daily basis, makes the moments that we do get the opportunity that much more important and worthwhile.

Having a long distance friendship makes you not only appreciate that particular friendship, but it also makes you appreciate the friendships much closer to home.

Since Lana and I returned to our respective homes back in July, I have learned to better appreciate the moments that I am able to spend with my friends here at home.

I cherish and appreciate every single moment that I am able to spend with them because I am well aware that these moments won’t last forever.

Being able to see your friends every day is a godsend and a blessing of childhood and something that simply becomes a fairy tale as you grow older.

Because of my friendship with Alana, I have realized that a large part of growing up is learning to deal with the absence of friends at certain points in your life.

People will be busy, people will move, people will change.

That’s just a part of growing up and living in the real world.

It sucks, it hurts and sometimes, it makes you wish you were 10 years old sitting in your best friend’s floor playing truth or dare again.

My long-distance friendship with Alana has made me grow up and become stronger than I ever imagined being.

Alana is genuinely the most amazing, caring, genuine, hilarious and understanding person in the world, and I am so incredibly blessed to have her as my best friend.

The fact that she lives so far away just makes me appreciate her that much more, and I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.

It's also pretty dang cool to brag about my awesome Aussie best friend who battles brown snakes, magpies and kangaroos on a daily basis, and yes; her accent is awesome.

So to everyone that is struggling with a long distance friendship, listen up.

Your friendship is going to last, and it will last forever.

If you are able to make it through months without seeing one another, days without talking and thousands of miles between you; you can make it through anything.

Don’t be discouraged, don’t let the distance get between you, and above all else, don’t give up on your friendship.

Sometimes the friendships that are stretched the furthest, last the longest.