LeVi
ICC Student Staff Leader
To people who have experienced partings, and people who will experience partings.
Somebody said, “Life is full of goodbyes”, which resonates with me deeply and I believe humans universally will find this statement true as well.
As someone with an international background who has more international friends than natives, there have been countless times I had to say goodbye to my friends as they returned to their home countries or went to study abroad. And no matter how many times I have experienced it, I can never get used to seeing my dear friends leaving one by one.
Talking from my own experience, ever since my friends and I parted ways to pursue our dreams and further education in different countries across the world, we hardly had a chance to meet each other. The transition from being able to meet my close friends on a daily basis to not being able to see them for years made me plummet into a devastating state, especially since I took a gap year right after graduating from high school to stay behind in my home country and earn some working experience. Throughout that one year, I had no friends to hang out with since everyone had left to prepare for university entrance, and since everyone’s time zone differed, it was hard to schedule group calls or activities to do together.
Though the reality is a hard pill to swallow, there are countless inevitable hardships that almost all long-distance relationships have to go through as I have mentioned above. In the early stages of separation, an effort is usually made to connect with each other through group calls or online activities during the weekend. But as time passes, the time that someone leisurely spends with old friends gradually turns into a luxury that many find hard to afford. And little by little, the number of times each of us talked to each other ceased, until the day we stopped receiving new notifications from our usual group chat that was once active and lively.
Since graduation, life went on like a book turning onto a new page, and without any exchange of words, we all knowingly came to agree that growing up always comes with new challenges to face and greater burdens that should be prioritized, in which sometimes sacrifices are necessary.
Unlike the feeling that you have when leaving home for a faraway place, for some people, it is harder to accept and move on from separations with friends, especially those who have been through thick and thin with them. The reason is that you know that you will eventually return to your family, but for friends, there is an uncertain feeling of not knowing if there is a chance for you to cross paths again.
Therefore, if you are also going through a hard time to part ways with someone, here are some suggested activities for you to keep in touch with each other:
- Scheduling a group call once in a while
In the call, you can spend time casually talking to each other or try out online collaborative games such as Gartic Phone, Skribbl, Codenames, Among Us, etc.
(photo by Unsplash+)
- Try out mobile apps that allow you to share your photos and life updates with each other on a daily basis.
A personal recommendation would be a mobile app called “Locket” where the pictures you take will appear on your friends’ phone screens in the form of a widget to create a sense of connectedness and surprise.
- Life update presentation nights
This activity involves everyone creating some slides to present to each other any new or interesting events that happened to them throughout that period.
- Movie night or Karaoke night
Moreover, I believe that time can mend anything, so even though your heart is filled with sadness and loneliness, remember that you and your friends will always be connected, and that trust and hope towards a future of reunion will give you strength to overcome anything.
(photo by Kimson Doan – Unsplash)
