Scarleteen

Hi so I’m going to make this short but basically I’m moving back to where I lived before COVID due to a lot of personal reasons. I’m actually looking forward to being back there, for the most part.

Except I don’t have any friends there. And my (currently) closest friends are at the school that I just left. I’m going to miss them so much. How do I stay in touch?? None of us are great communicators online. I’m worried they’ll all grow closer to each other now that I’m gone.

And how do I occupy myself in the meantime? I don’t really have other people my age to talk to aside from the friends I’m moving away from. I know I’ll make new friends at my new school but it’s so hard and such a process. I don’t know what to do with myself and I’m really upset I’m leaving my best friends. I’m crying

Hi Hel, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling upset about leaving your friends, I get it! It's hard to move and leave friends behind. The good thing about 2021 is the many ways in which we can stay in touch--I know it's not the same and will require extra effort, but it is doable! You can use WhatsApp or something similar to chat and videochat, for example for the first several months of the pandemic I was getting together with my friends via Zoom. We lived in the same city but for safety reasons did it this way and we would even have themed parties like dressing up or watching a movie together through Zoom, it was really fun! Also remember that it's normal for some friendships to come and go and it's natural for some people to drift apart as you grow older, so if eventually this happens, it won't be your fault. For now you can plan these types of virtual parties or hangouts to keep the friendships active!