How to Stay in Touch With Your Roommate After Graduation

By Danni White on April 20, 2017

Image via Pexels

Graduating from college is a great accomplishment. You’ve waited four years for this opportunity — to see the end of the road on a long journey. Entering a brand new chapter of life comes with an insane measure of fear and excitement. But parting ways with a roommate with whom you have spent several years is a little heartbreaking.

After college, everyone seems to go about their own way, some to great job opportunities, others to internships, and still others to international charity work. You may stay in your college town, move back to your hometown, or head off to a brand new city. Staying close to your roommate after graduation can seem hard, and staying in touch even by phone or text can feel like it’s not enough. But there is more than one way to keep that bond you’ve worked so hard to develop.

Whether you’re graduating from college or you just wrapped up your senior year in high school, staying close to your roommate takes significant effort (much more than reposting a Facebook update or liking every Instagram post). Whether states, oceans, or worlds apart, here are some great ways to stay in touch with your roommate after you graduate.

VISIT

A 2015 survey suggests that visits people pay their friends has decreased by nearly a third in the past 20 years. Of course, it is all driven by the latest new, if not very convenient, technology. But this doesn’t have to be the case for you.

It may seem a little bit old-fashioned but let’s be honest, who doesn’t like the exciting rush from a surprise visit from a stranger (er, friend). It doesn’t matter how you get there — bus, plane, or Uber — sometimes it is worth the effort to make the journey to see your friend face-to-face.

BLOG TOGETHER

If you love to write or want to write, a good way to stay connected and share your experiences, accomplishments, and even bad hair days is to develop a joint blog. It could be a private affair in which you both write about all sorts of things that you’d only tell each other. Or if you have common interests such as beauty or health and wellness or even science, you could create a public blog and inspire others with your interests and talents.

Getting started in blogging is fairly easy. With services such as WordPress or Blogger or Medium, you can be up and running with a nice design and easy system to manage your content in no time. And if you have more than one close friend, you can add sub-accounts especially on WordPress and let them all blog their thoughts away.

CHAT ABOUT THE WEIRD STUFF

You remember how you used to talk about the funny bumper sticker you saw on someone’s car or the strange person you ran into at the laundromat or playing pool every Friday not just for the heck of it? Well, it’s those little random things that helped to spark your friendship and to create that special bond.

Those little things still happen and they are part of your day-to-day experiences and are still very much worth sharing. It’s in the minutiae of life that we find worthy treasures. So the next time, you make a reference to playing pool on a Friday night when your friend is back in town for a holiday, she will know exactly what you mean.

BE A GIFTIE

Over the years, you’ve probably grown to know what your former roommate really likes or the one or two things he is saving up money to absolutely purchase. So after a couple months or even a year or two apart from each other, considering sending your friend a useful gift that will remind him of your friendship or of something fun that you did together in college.

Whether it’s a really exotic gift or a simple teacup from Marseille, France, you’ll never regret sending your friend a little something special right from where you are. After all, who doesn’t love to receive a surprise in the mail every once in a while?

REAL LIFE FRIEND REUNIONS

You know how colleges and even high schools have reunions after so many years apart? Well, it’s kind of the same thing here but only with your friends which is probably a much smaller group than an entire class reunion. Whether you plan it in a city you both are familiar with at a cool location or in a completely different country, the important thing is for you all to get together and actually see each other.

Planning a vacation together or even a simple weekend can be fun and refreshing and help you catch up with each other’s lives. Keeping your friendships alive isn’t always easy but it is very much possible.

WRITE AN HONEST EMAIL OR LETTER

We all have that one friend that we can rant to about everything that’s wrong with the world. If that friend moves away then it may be increasingly difficult to find someone who can be that loving and listening ear. It doesn’t have to be, though. You can promise to write out all the things you would say in an honest email or letter at least once a week.

It can’t be the usual “how was your day” or “this is what I did today.” It has to be a truthful telling of all the important and not-so-important things in your life, the good, the bad, the irritating, and the exciting. No skipping the bad stuff because, well, if she’s really your friend, she can probably read between the lines.

It’s life. Embrace the scary new beginnings, the nervous excitement, and the crazy adventures. You may have to travel a different path in life but you don’t have to lose your best friend from college in the process.

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