Staying In Touch

It's been four months since Lockdown began in the UK. Since then, our lives have drastically changed for what might be forever. We've lost the ability to go wherever we want with whoever we wish to and hanging out with friends and family is something we took for granted.

But we've all made the best of it. For example, every single Friday since April, I've hosted my Zoom parties and actively made an effort to communicate with my friends. If I'm honest, I think it's helped our friendships dramatically. We all expected our first year out of University would be incredibly stressful; we've gone from living down the hall from each other to being on opposite corners of the country. But the push to be social has helped our friendship stay healthy when the distance could have potentially weakened it.

I think that social anxiety has been one of my most significant issues these past few months. Our world is slowly returning to normalcy, but the reality is that we may not be able to see our friends face to face for some months safely. So it's time that we look into ways to maintain long-distance relationships. It can't be too hard, we've muddled along for the past few months.

But I know so many people who have actively avoided Zoom calls because of the dread of having several friends staring straight at them, which I get because you can either feel shoved into the awkward limelight or sidelined in Zoom conversations. So I guess this is for those people; the ones who actively need other ways to stay in touch.

Letter Writing

I don't care if I sound 60 years old when I say this. Letter writing is so damn fun; it's unreal. Letter writing is one of the most intimate and relaxing ways to communicate with your loved ones. I spent the first few months after University writing letters to my mates; it became a beautiful part of my weekend and a welcomed bit of respite.

If you read these blogs regularly, then you'll know I'm a bit of a workaholic and a motivated individual. So the idea of sitting down with a brew and my letter writing stuff felt just as calming as a nap. Even if you don't start a letter writing as a way to communicate with friends, I recommend it as a way to process emotions and feelings. Letters are for writing, but not always for sending. I have plenty of letters tucked under my bed that I'll never send.

Schedule in a phone call

I'm still a massive advocate of the Zoom party. So if that's more up your street, then I recommend checking out my devoted blog post on it. But if you don't like the idea of a glitchy video call, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with a right old fashioned phone call. It doesn't have to belong, nor like clockwork. But catching up with the girls once every few weeks becomes a welcome part of your routine.

I think having regular communication like this reminds you that you and your mates are all there's to support each other no matter how far away you all are from each other. So it doesn't even have to be a phone call, a text or DM. It could be something as small as starting a Facebook game with them or tagging them in the occasional meme. It's letting them know that they're still in your thoughts.

Plan for the future

This sounds a bit down and dreary. But plan for the future. Think of all the things you're going to do when you see each other because that time will come again soon. I've decided that my reunion with my mates is going to be epic. Every single week we've been with each other and tried to support each other as much as we can. But, you can only do so much through the screen and over the phone.

I know everything going on in the world is terrible. But I am adamant that we are all able to find a little bit of light from this time. If we look hard enough, there are things that we can do to feel better and goals we can achieve. If you've managed to maintain long-distance friendships and relationships through this time, then you know that they're for the long haul. We've all got through this together.