One of my best friends lives nearly 200 miles away from me.
That really sucks sometimes.
As with many other people this probably rings true for, we met at university where I decided to venture up north for three years, five hours away from home.
It didn't really dawn on me until about six months after I left the land of the north that unless one of us was willing to relocate (never going to happen), the basis of our friendship from then on was going to be via Whatsapp.
But what I've realised in the four years of becoming long-distance best friends (LDBFs) is that there are several tell-tale signs you know it's going to be a friendship that lasts, no matter what the distance is.
1. You had the initial shock at the near £100 cost it will be each to see each other every time because trains are so bloody expensive.
2. You then mastered the art of saving money by booking advance train tickets, which basically means you have to plan to see each other months ahead of the date. Organised gals.
3. You also subconsciously draw up a schedule of whose "turn" it is to visit next.
4. Despite the distance, you still know every detail about each other's life via daily, stream of consciousness conversations on Whatsapp. Because obviously.
5. That also means the image bank on your Whatsapp conversation is filled with everything from ugly selfies to a dress you might want to buy to an OMG screenshot you saw on Twitter. And cats.
6. You both have the constant joke of: "So when are you going to move to *insert place you live* then?". (You both know neither of you will ever move).
7. You might not always make it to see each other for birthday celebrations but big packaged birthday parcels arriving on your door make you just as giddy.
8. Sometimes you can go a few days without talking because life gets in the way. Cue "life update" messages where you word vomit everything that's happened in the past week.
9. When your far-in-advance meet-up does approach, you're counting down the days, weeks in advance and begin planning the whole weekend from start to finish.
10. And when other friends ask if you're free that weekend, it's a simple NO. You need serious quality time with your LDBF.
11. Whether you haven't seen each other for months or weeks, as soon as you do NOTHING has changed.
12. Within five minutes of meeting up, you've both launched into an hour-long, in-depth conversation about everything and anything that has happening (usually starting with: 'OMG did I tell you about...?').
13. Your conversations when you meet up usually include reminiscing about the hilarious things you did when you used to live near/with each other.
14. And when you're with them you can finally blurt out all the weird things that have happened/strange things you've done because you know they will totally understand better than anyone else.
15. As soon as your weekend together is over, you begin planning the next one.
16. When you're back home, it's very normal to send random: "I miss you" texts.
17. Things are always the hardest when something happens that means you really need to be there for your friend, but you just can't. 😢
18. You look to the future and worry about what happens when one of you gets married and has babies and OMG how often will you be able to see the little one when you live so far away?
19. You both know, deep down, no matter the distance, neither of you are going anywhere.