On today’s episode I am chatting with my long time best friend about friendship. Samantha is a wife, daughter, and an aspiring home chef. She works in new construction real estate by day, but loves to cook, travel, and spend time with family by night. You can follower her @sam-kbarton on instagram.

We met in college but it wasn’t best friends at first… We were in the same household at our university, similar to a sorority, and she was my big. We got along but didn’t really click as besties until she got sick with phenomena. After that we were pretty much inseparable. 

In the summers we would call each other every day, even just for 5 minutes at a time. Back at school everyone knew us as Sam and Laura - that’s how often we were together. 

Our time together gave us a great base in which our friendship could flourish because at this point we have been long distance friends longer than we have been in person. At points we were just across the country, at others across the world. It is much easier to maintain a friendship long distance these days with all the technology that is available to us. 

Having been friends for 7 years we have seen each other through a lot of different life seasons. Student, on our own, dating, engagement, marriage - we’ve been all the places together. There are some friendships that are meant for a season, but there are also friendships that transcend seasons and are with you through life, and that is a very sweet kind of friendship. 

Because people change and mature over time, friendships also have to change. The reason our friendship has been so “successful” over a long amount of time has been because we adapt to our new life stages. At one point we were free enough to talk every day. That looks different now, and it’s not a bad thing because it is not what we need any more. 

Sometimes it happens that one friend is going through a life change while the other isn’t. Or a stage of life has more to do with another than with that friend. It can be difficult trying to navigate these seasons because on one hand the needs of one friend changes, while the needs of the other stays the same. What can be done here? Communication is the key, and understanding where each other is coming from and making an effort to be there for your friend in their season. Friendships that are selfish won’t last. Friendship is a relationship and in relationships they need to be reciprocal to thrive. Think about the other, and communicate your needs clearly. 

We had so much fun recording this episode together for you! Let us know if you enjoyed it and would like to have Samantha come back! 

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