Long Distance Siblingship
Having a brother or a sister means having a best friend and arch-nemesis living with you right at home. However, once they move out, whether they go abroad for studying or your sister gets married and she becomes someone else's sister (and you become slightly jealous), you realize what you took for granted. I mean let's be real, whom are you going to annoy 24/7?
I remember coming home from school and sitting on my sister's table, telling her all about my day. You see, a day without annoying her or making her feel like a punching my face would be a day incomplete for me. Now that she's not around, I can't break a glass and blame it on her. I don't have a shoulder to lean on after a bad day. I don't have a back up for any of my unreasonable requests to my mother.
Time difference is your number one enemy. It is a sad reminder of the thousands of miles that are separating the two of you, and so, they will miss out on more than a few important moments in life every now and then. You can't just barge into their room to ask which top you should pair with your new pants. You can text them, but chances are, they'll be sleeping when you are planning out your outfit. You will realize you actually miss all the mockery and dissing. Moreover, holidays and birthdays are the worst. The family shots will be incomplete. Dinner tables will miss them the most but the good thing is that the chair you once fought over can finally be yours.
What can be done to include them in the things you're doing is a Skype session, but that's only possible if it is not entirely an epic fail. You need patience to get through the "I can hear you, can you hear me" phase. Also, occasional stalking on social media sites will give you an insight to the life they have there. So it's completely normal if you feel like going on to Facebook or Instagram and liking every single photo of them like a creep. Family group chats on messaging apps like Whatsapp and Viber are life savers too. As clichéd as it is, this is what helps the most to keep in contact. Random unnecessary photos of the day, a beautiful picture of your mom, they can all be shared in the group.
Long distance relationships with your siblings can be hard, but it is always worth putting in the extra effort because it's that much crucial. For the reason that once they come back, it will be like they never left! You'll lose your newly gained seat in the dining table, but you'll get to annoy someone 24/7. What else do you need? Just keep the lines of communication open and family a priority and you're good to go.