How To Keep In Touch With Your Childhood Friends After You All Head Off To College

Chip Chick |

Aug 20, 2023

ID 91749887 - © Dan Grytsku - Dreamstime.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer, Abby Connolly.

While going off to college is fantastic and exciting, it can also be a bit sad. As most of us know, going to a school away from home means leaving your family, friends, and hometown behind for a while. For some people, this is easy, and they’ve been dreaming about getting away for a long time. But for others, leaving your loved ones, especially your friends, is very hard.

As someone very close to her childhood friends, going to a school where I hardly knew anyone from home was very difficult. But, with time and a few helpful tips from others, it became easier, and I learned how to stay close to my friends from home while making friends at school.

So, if you’re about to leave for college or are still adjusting to your new campus life, here are a few tips for maintaining your childhood friendships during your college years.

Communication Is Key

While there are a lot of scary factors about living in a digital age, it’s also something we should be taking advantage of. We are so lucky to have the technology that makes communicating with people fast and easy – so use it!

If there’s a group of friends from high school you’ll miss when you go off to school, put everyone in a group chat and text as often as possible! My group chat of friends kept me going in college, and we loved swapping funny campus stories and checking in with each other.

Communication is a two-way street. If you haven’t heard from someone in a while, they may be going through something difficult you don’t know about.

So try your best to stay on top of your communication skills and text or call your friends.

ID 91749887 – © Dan Grytsku – Dreamstime.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

Schedule Virtual Meetings

One of the best ways to feel more connected to your friends while you’re all in college is to schedule weekly or monthly FaceTime calls or Zoom meetings! Sometimes, seeing someone’s face is way better than texting or calling them all the time.

You don’t just have to sit there and talk to your friends during your virtual meeting. You can play online games, have an online watch party of a show or movie, etc. It’s the closest you can get to actually seeing someone in person, so get everyone to share their schedules and try it out!

Make The Most Out of Visits Home

When you and your friends go home for holiday or summer breaks, make the most of them! My friends and I would have a Friendsgiving party every Thanksgiving break, and it was always so much fun.

Before leaving college, we would all message back and forth to figure out what day would work for us to meet, considering Thanksgiving break was always short.

Whenever you know you’ll be heading home from school at the same time as your other friends, try your best to carve out time for them in advance. When you get home for a holiday break, it’s a terrible feeling when it flies by before you can see anyone.

However, be sure not to spread yourself too thin. You don’t want to lose all of your relaxation and family time during a break because you’re frantically trying to visit all your hometown friends.

Prioritize the people and places that are most important to you before heading home. Also, if you can introduce any of your college friends to your hometown friends during school breaks, that’s a bonus!

Practice Honesty And Vulnerability

If you’re missing your hometown friends and are struggling without them at school, let them know! It will give you a chance to talk out your feelings with someone you trust and let your friend know just how much you value them.

Sometimes, childhood friendships drift apart during college because we forget to tell those people how much they still mean to us and vice versa. So although it may sound cheesy, don’t forget to tell your hometown friends how much you miss and appreciate them.

Having a few old friendships drift apart as you enter your 20s is totally natural. Just remember that the most heartfelt and genuine friendships are worth fighting for and working on.

If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe

She And Her Boyfriend Went Out Shopping For A Refrigerator One Night In October, And That Was The Last Time Her Sons Or Neighbors Ever Saw Her

She Was Such A Big Fan of Mystery Fiction Novels That She Became One of The First People To Open A Store Dedicated To Selling These Books

Here Are Some of The Most Versatile Furniture Pieces You Can Own, In Case You’re Short On Space Or Cash

He Just Found Out His Daughter Bullied A Girl Into Switching Schools, So As Punishment, He’s Not Allowing Her To Go To Her Senior Prom Or Homecoming

Her Family Is Suspicious About Where She Got The Money To Send Her Daughter To College, But She Doesn’t Want To Tell Them Who Gave It To Her Since The Truth Will Probably Make Her Sister Angry

While He And His Wife Were Separated, She Got Pregnant With Another Guy, But Now She Says She’s Still In Love With Him And Wants Him Back

Her Dog Went Missing While She Was Out of Town, And After Her Husband Started Acting Suspiciously, She Snooped Through His Dashcam Footage And Caught Him Dumping Her Dog In A Field Far Away From Home

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

More About:Advice