6 Easy Ways To Keep In Touch With Old Friends
Friends are such an important part of our lives. They experience life with us, whether it’s going well or poorly. Our old friends know us unlike anyone else because they’ve been through it all by our side. When you don’t see your close friends regularly, though, that can potentially create some distance between you. No one wants that, right? You have to make sure to keep in touch with old friends!
I haven’t lived in the same city as my childhood friends for the past seven years. Plus, I have several close friends from college who I live far away from now. So I guess you can say that I have some experience with keeping in touch with friends who I don’t have the pleasure of seeing every day. I have used many of these methods to keep my friendships strong, so I can tell you that they work!
Here are six different ways to keep in touch with the important people in your life.
1. Meet Up as Much as Possible
This is perhaps the most obvious and difficult solution to keeping in touch with friends. Actually hang out! If you still live in the same area, or within a reasonable driving distance, try to meet up at least once a month. If you live farther away, look into a cheap plane ride to see each other once or twice a year. There’s no substitute for spending time together in person.
2. Never Forget a Birthday
Whether you write a loving social media post, send a simple card, or ship a gift to your friend, they will appreciate it. You could also set up a virtual birthday party with your squad! Remembering birthdays is an easy way to show you care. And, a birthday message can be used as a jumping-off point for further conversation. So if you haven’t talked in a while, it’s a great opportunity to catch up.
3. Use Technology
In the 21st century, technology is a great choice for easy communication. There are a million (I’m probably not exaggerating) ways to keep in touch using technology. Many of these, you probably use all the time. Some, you may have never heard of or considered using to connect with old friends. So, here are some of the many classic and creative ways you can use technology to stay connected with people.
Classic Methods
There are many tried-and-true methods for keeping in touch with technology. You probably use some of these already! And if you don’t, you should start.
Creative Ways
These ways use technology in a slightly more creative way. Do you do some of these already?
As you can see, there are so many ways to use technology to stay close to your friends. Take advantage of them.
4. Write Each Other Letters
Sending letters between friends and family members has been a practice for centuries, long before there was any other form of communication across distance. Now, with so many ways to contact someone instantly, snail mail has been left in the dust. However, it’s still a wonderful way to keep in touch!
My friends and I sent each other mail while we were in college, and it’s exciting to receive those letters and postcards. I keep all my mail that I receive and bundle it up together at the end of the year. I know that when I’m older, I’ll love looking back on these messages.
Take the extra time to send your friends a letter or postcard. It shows how much you care, and they’ll have a wonderful keepsake from your friendship!
5. A Traveling Journal
If you’re anything like me, you were obsessed with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in your middle school years. You know how the traveling journal works. This is a super creative, fun way to keep in touch long-distance.
Since it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll find one pair of pants that fits you and your friends, though, sticking to the traveling journal will work. Set an amount of time for each person in the group to keep the journal. When your time is up, mail it to the next person. You can write entries about your life in the journal, doodle, and write comments on your friends’ entries!
6. Plan a Trip Together
**DISCLAIMER: At the time of publication for this post, we are amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic. Please consult with the World Health Organization and Center for Disease Control guidelines before traveling.**
If you and your friend have ever wanted to visit the same destination, make it happen! For convenience, pick a place between both of your homes, or go all out and travel around the world together. Going on a trip together is an amazing way to make some lasting memories. Plus, you both get to check an item off your bucket list.
No matter what stage of life you’re in right now, you probably have old friends with whom you’d like to keep in touch. We hope that these suggestions help you maintain those friendships!
What is your favorite way to stay in touch with friends? Is it on this list? Let us know in the comments!
These are wonderful tips. I love to take trips with my friends.
Me too, you get to make such great memories!
Thanks for the Advice. I have a lot of friends that I want to keep in contact with. I hope I am doing a good job, but your advice will prove useful. BL
I’m glad you found this useful, thanks for reading! 🙂
Great points! Well stated. Even I find it hard to keep in touch and this helps.
With the busy lives we all lead, keeping in touch does prove to be difficult! I’m glad these tips help, thanks for reading!
Great info! My best friend moved to another state last month. She already lived in another town but not it’s even harder.
I totally understand your situation! These tips will help a lot to close the distance 🙂 Thanks for reading!
I live across the country from almost all of my closest friends, so while I’d love to meet up with them in person, technology definitely has been helping me to keep in touch with them! <3
Technology is a wonderful thing when your friends are that far away! Thanks for reading 🙂
Friends are something we should cherish. I love the ideas you shared here. I strive want to be the best friend to all my friends and maintain keep contact with them. I believe by doing this it shows that they are an important part of your life and that you appreciate them. I invited my friend to join me at Blog Elevated for the cocktail party. He was blown away! It was my way of showing him my appreciation and I wanted him to experience a little taste of the “blogging” world that I am being introduced to. I believe this will allow him to support and encourage me as I embark on establishing my blog. By the way, it was a pleasure to meet the sister of Jasmine Watts at the conference. May God continue to bless you and yours in all your endeavors!
I completely agree with you! And inviting a friend as a +1 to an exclusive event is a great way to show you care. How cool! Thanks for reading 🙂
I really appreciated reading your article. I cherish my best friend and cousin but we’re so far apart. But with social media and now ZOOM, we have connected again and I just love it!
I like that you mention that you should try and meet up with your friends as much as possible to make sure that you are still able to spend time with them. My husband and I have been wanting to keep in touch with our friends in the greek system. I think we should look into finding a happy hour bar near us that we can hang out and have fun with them.
That’s a great idea, thanks for sharing!
Blood makes relatives but friends make our family. Nice post, I really found it helping one. thanks
Totally agree, thanks for reading!
I’m certainly guilty of staying away from friends. For years I’ve done this and the result is loneliness. I hope it’s not too late to kickstart.