I might be too optimistic, but I think some friendships really do survive every kind of distance and time. Every summer when I go back home, one of the things I look forward to most is meeting my best friends from elementary school. We’ve known each other for nearly all our lives, yet we only see each other a couple of times a year now.
We used to share everything: classrooms, hobbies, inside jokes. But naturally, we have much less in common these days. Our lives rarely overlap like before. We live in different cities and countries, study completely different things, and some already have jobs or even babies, which still blows my mind. Meanwhile, I’m still a student, juggling deadlines and trying to figure out what comes next after graduation. But for a few hours, when we sit together, it’s like nothing has changed. We fall back into the same familiar rhythm – like defrosting a memory we kept frozen for a year, still fresh and real, even if slightly changed. Same jokes, same stories we’ve told way too many times, and somehow, they never feel old.
When I moved abroad to study in 2022, I missed them more than I expected. Seeing photos of them hanging out, laughing together, made me feel like I was missing out or even left out. Which was unfair, since I was the one who chose to leave. Sometimes I even felt guilty for not being there when someone was going through a hard time. But that feeling faded over time. Staying connected online and meeting again every summer made me realise that being apart doesn’t necessarily make a friendship any less real, it just takes a different shape.
Of course, I don’t have the same kind of relationship with everyone I used to be close to. Some friendships have drifted, while others somehow feel even stronger now. It’s only natural. I’ve learned that friendship doesn’t have one shape, but rather is fluid. Some are loud and constant; others are quiet and occasional. Still, I’m lucky to have friends who stay in my life no matter the distance – they just become annual highlights in an otherwise predictable calendar.
Yuki Nakamura, third year bachelor student Arts and Culture