How Distance Affects Relationships

I think distance can effect relationships in several ways, depending on the situation, the kind of relationship, also how or if the relationship is maintained. Fortunently I haven't had to part from close relationships often, but I can share two examples in which distance had an opposite effect. I grew up in a small town, there was only one school that went from kindergarten thru eighth-grade. So with the exception of the occational "new student" the people in my class had known me since I was 5 years old. Not only did I see them in class, I saw them after school as well. Because of course Carbonado is essentially one neighborhood, we all shared the same stomping-grounds. I had known my best-friend Kimberly it seemed all my life. We shared everything, sat beside each other in class, were partners in every school project, and were together after school every day until our parents called us home for dinner. Together all the time since Kindergarten. I don't know how it so severely changed seemingly over-night. After eighth-grade Carbonado students had to then ride a bus for twenty minutes to get to High-School in Buckley. Up to this point it was the biggest change Kim and I were ever faced with, but one thing was the same we were together. For the first time we had classes without each other. No big deal, we just met after and it seemed like nothing was going to change us in the begining. Suddenly being around new people was exciting and soon meeting at passing was just that, passing. But, we still had the bus rides and we sat next to each other sharing every detail of our day like best-friends do. Then came the boys, and their cars, so the bus rides faded away as well. Believe it or not this was only six months into our freshman year! Six months, after all those years. I didn't make it through that first year before deciding Alternative-School was a better fit for me. It was 5 miles from Kim's school, but it might as well have been half-way across the