All of my IRL friendships are based around activities - we play games together, we volunteer together, etc. When someone moves away and we try to keep the friendship going, it always just sputters out after a few weeks or months. It just seems to devolve into small-talk / catch-ups that neither of us are really interested in (I don’t mind small-talk too much, but it can’t be 100% of any meaningful relationship).
So: What is the point of a long-distance friendship for two people who have no plans to live locally again? What am I missing?
EDIT: I have close conversations in person that are deep and meaningful, just very rarely over text. Maybe I ought to phone or video call once in a while…
You’ve never shared your intimate personal life with anyone? Your fears and woes, and happiness and triumphs? One of the wonderful qualities of deep friendship is the ability to withstand long stretches of being apart and still shine as brigth as the last time you met. I have a couple of people right now who I haven’t seen or talked to in years. But I have the utmost certainty that if I were to pick up the phone and write them “hey, can we talk?” I would get an almost immediate response, despite the timezones. And the conversation would flow as if we just talked yesterday. That, is friendship to me.