How to Keep Up with Your Friends This Summer

The end of the school year is hard for everyone. We have to pack up our belongings, finish final papers, complete projects, study for finals and—arguably the hardest—say goodbye to the friends we’ve made here and won’t see this summer.

Tears might be shed, especially for those seniors who are graduating and don’t know when the next time they’ll see their friends again. You have connections and memories to last a lifetime with these people and can’t imagine not living with them, down the hall from them, or a street away from them. However, in this day in age it’s very easy to keep in close contact with your friends—and stalk all their summer or post-grad plans.

“There are so many easy ways nowadays to keep in touch so I don’t think it will be that tricky,” freshman graphic design major Amy Major says.

Major plans to keep in touch with friends via Facebook, GroupMe, FaceTime, Skype, etc. You don’t have to just keep in touch technology—Major and some of her friends from here are going to New Jersey for a weekend beach trip in the middle of summer. Even if they didn’t have this trip planned, Major isn’t worried about keeping in touch through only technology.

“Most of my friends live in Pennsylvania, so driving to them is only about three and a half hours which is do-able so we will most likely take turns going back and forth,” Major explains.

Some students will be abroad this summer, making keeping in touch slightly harder. Major is from the UK, so she knows a bit about keeping in touch from a distance.

“My friends that are in the UK now I always just message on Facebook and they respond whenever it works, then we will arrange a time to Skype,” says Major.

She is going back to the UK for a month this summer as well, which will make keeping in touch with her friends in America a bit more difficult than driving for a couple hours to see them

“The only reason it’s slightly harder is because of the time difference. We are five hours ahead so it’s harder if you want to call them because our schedules will be completely different”, says Major. “When I’m overseas, I usually just keep in touch with friends by in-boxing them on Facebook.”

Other than planning a trip together, going to see friends or using social media to keep in touch, there are so many fun ways to keep in touch with friends! Getting real mail is always exciting for anyone, so sending your friends a letter or postcard would make their day. If you’re in a group of friends, you could channel “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and pick an item to send around an item to your group if you all are scattered all over the place. If you have the money, the group could purchase a polaroid camera to send around—along with all the photos each person takes—to show how your summer is going! It’d be a fun way to see everyone’s summer through pictures.

Whatever you do, make sure to keep in touch with the friends you’ve made here—after all, these could be the friendships that last a lifetime.