How to Keep in Touch With Friends After Moving Cross Country
Posted in Coping With Relocation on May 20, 2021
How to keep in touch with friends was not an easy question to answer in the past. Even though moving cross country meant uprooting yourself from your familiar support structure, it hasn’t been that simple to find comfort when needed. Hearing from your family meant waiting for months for a letter, scheduling phone calls, not to mention a sense of loneliness you just couldn’t shake off.
Nowadays, there is no excuse for not staying in contact with your friends from a long distance. But how do you stay in contact with someone? We can agree that modern communication technology has taken us to a whole new level of catching up with our loved ones. If you’d like your relationships healthy and nurtured, no matter how far you are, make an effort and stay connected. We’ve gathered some ideas in case you don’t know where to start from when moving across the country.
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Make It Fun and Warm
Getting a fresh start out there will make you a busy bee, for sure. Waiting to finish your work, to have some rest, or to find a good moment might be a great expectation. Remember, you don’t have to wait for a free day or have something significant to say to share things with people. On the contrary, sending and receiving simple content might be as effective and meaningful as any other way of communicating. Whether it’s a photo, a meme, a funny video you came across, or just a short voice message, what’s important is not only the content but the person behind it.
Make your friends laugh, let them know you’re thinking of them. There are no rules on how often you should keep in touch with friends. Call them and talk about random things, you can bounce apartment ideas, they can even help you make a new home checklist. Ensure that conversation is easy and there won’t be any problems.
Don't forget the simple things, everybody loves them
Chatting Is Always the Answer
Great friendships are not just about shared significant life events. They are also about minor things, random things you don’t want to share with anybody else. When someone shares the most beautiful things on their mind, including the weirdest ones, too, that’s how the bond gets stronger. To maintain friendships when relocating to another state alone, there has to be a mutual habit of updating each other regularly. And it’s easily done when there are chat apps such as Telegram, Viber, or WhatsApp. You can do it while shopping, paying your bills, walking, whenever you want. Chatting will give you a sense of closeness, even though you might be at the other end of the planet.
Talk, because the sense of belonging is preserved through sharing
A Simple Phone Call Is Always a Good Idea
Relocating with your pets is undoubtedly a great idea. Not only because it makes relocation stress free but it’s much simpler to cope with homesickness with the pets by your side. Still, talking to them is not possible. At least not entirely. Figuring out how to keep in touch with your friends from a long distance might get a bit complicated when in different time zones, but even then, it is pretty doable. Sure, it’s much easier to squeeze the call in whenever you find some time, but setting a standing date – every Friday night, for example – for a group call and big events like birthdays is always the option. Giving a friend you miss a phone call is the next best thing to being near them.
The best comfort comes with a simple phone call
Social Media Is Your Best Friend
No matter if you’re moving to Los Angeles, or planning to relocate to New York City, hiring movers to help you move – with social media, long distance moving will not harm your friendships. If you’re wondering how to keep in touch with your friends without Facebook, believe it or not, there are many more social media networks out there! Instagram and Twitter, for example, can help you stay up to date with the smallest details, from their families and work offices to new haircuts, people they hang out with, or how they would decorate their dream house.
More Technology: Video Chatting
Relocating across the state alone explains what the “I miss your face” phrase means. Luckily, some apps we use often – Google Hangouts, Zoom, Skype, or Facetime – are so user-friendly that even your grandparents can use them with almost no trouble.
Video calls can be rewarding, from organizing virtual parties to video-conferencing with all your buddies at once. Maybe someone is also planning an adventure like yours, and this is the best way to prepare them for the relocation process. From most vital aspects like which long-distance movers to hire, rates they can expect for professional packing, and some of the basic cross country moving services, as well as car shipping service. Help them make a moving to-do list with all of the relocation questions you had for cross-country movers, just in case. Don’t forget to advise them how to avoid relocation scams as well as how much should they tip movers. No matter if they’re relocating for love or work, this advice will be a life-saver.
To hear more about some of the best messaging apps, check out the video below.
Emails Are Not Passé
When you think there are no more promising ways to surprise your pals at home, type an email at 4 AM or in the midst of the crowded bar to give them a good laugh or to share what’s going on. It’s a quick and easy way for all the spontaneous and not-so-spontaneous messages. They’re probably expecting work-related mail, so this would be an excellent way to contact them and brighten their day. Sending mail is a great way to stay in contact due to different time zones.
Using the Old Fashioned Method: Postcards and Letters
We wouldn’t be wrong if we defined this handwritten method as something of a lost art. Still, when relocating to Las Vegas or planning a move to Miami or any such exotic city, sending postcards or letters to people you care about will surely brighten their day. It’s the opportunity to share a piece of yourself straight from the heart.
The noise of thousands of posts, tweets, likes – whatever we call it these days – can never have such an intimate and warm effect as a genuine note from a friend can. There are many benefits of relocation but they have to be sealed with the postmark, or they don’t count!
Take some time and write down your thoughts for the people you love
Share Your Memories
One of the quick but profound ways to contact a specific person you’re missing is resurfacing some of the old memories two of you shared. With our close ones, it happens all the time without even trying. You may forget the exact date when it happened, but all the essential specifics are still there: the person you love, the atmosphere, the laughter. Past events are natural happiness boosters and ties that help you remember what you’ve gone through with some of your favorite people and why you love them so much. That’s why some moving essentials should be photos! You can dig them up and reminisce whenever you miss loved ones.
Engaging in shared memories can be incredibly beneficial for everybody
Send Them Suggestions for Joint Activities
Living in another state doesn’t mean life as you know it is over. Even if you can’t see each other often, you can still create new memories and plan exciting activities that will bring you closer together. Here are some suggestions for keeping your friendship alive.
How to Keep in Touch With Friends: Plan a Trip Together
Depending on the distance, catch every opportunity to see each other, no matter how short it is. True, plans like these can be expensive, but sacrificing some money is nothing compared to getting together again. Find a place you both like, circle it in your calendar, and start saving for the next vacation.
Play Online Games
Keeping each other amused comes naturally when playing games together. You can play not only your typical online video games but also board and card games. Entering this virtual world will keep your spirits up and bring you together again with all the adventures yet awaiting. Try playing Cards Against Humanity and maybe try Among Us, or even go with some more challenging ones – either way, there’s no chance you’ll be alone ever again.
Make a Playlist Together
There’s a great feature on platforms like Spotify for all of you who are crazy about music, especially when sharing it with loved ones, and that is creating playlists. You can even do it together. For example, you know the feeling when you wake up with a song you can get out of your head? With a specific person and the collaborative playlist feature, you’ll be able to add tracks that no one else may have heard of, but you can’t stop them from looping in your brain.
Don't give up on making new memories with the ones you care about; there are many ways to do it even though long distance
Is It Normal to Lose Touch With Friends?
Well, we all know it takes two to tango, so falling out of touch is perfectly normal when it happens due to significant life changes. What do you say to keep in touch with a person you grew apart with? “Tomorrow, for sure? Maybe this weekend. Next month, better.” Maybe you grew up with your friend, or you’ve been close during a specific life period, and then the dynamics shifted. Some will become even closer, while others grow apart. It is especially challenging when one of you is going through a relocation process. Dealing with one’s private life, career, and other vital areas of one’s life, may, unfortunately, wash away some of the friendships you left behind.
As things in life change, relationships follow. That doesn't mean you are a bad friend.
Now You Know How to Keep in Touch With Friends
Deciding where to move in the states is a shifting and utterly thrilling experience. Yet, the longer you are away, the harder you have to work on the feeling of belonging. That’s where communication comes in because it will help you stay connected to your home, family, and friends. To make this possible don’t make communication channels a duty. Enjoy the time cultivating your friendships.
