Call your loved ones

Morgan Dowler | Cartoonist

We’re all college students and understand that times are crazy throughout the semester, but sometimes a text just isn’t enough, and you really should call your family more. It doesn’t have to be your mom or dad or sister, but it should be someone who loves you; they want to hear your voice and what’s happening in your life.

Relationships are the most important things in your life. While most things come and go, the best relationships will live on well past your last day on Earth. Tend to them, and give them the attention they deserve.

It won’t always be easy to pick up the phone. As a college student, you always have countless different commitments that are pulling you in countless different directions. However, even for the busiest people, there are at least one or two lulls in your day when you spend time waiting in line for coffee or walking to class. Even just one five-minute conversation can change your entire day.

This is as good of a time as any to call that person. If you can’t find it in yourself to take those downtimes and use them to be active in your relationships, then it may be worth reevaluating whether or not you actually care about them — or better yet, why?

Keeping up with loved ones is not only a kind and important thing to do but also good for your mental health. Telling people who care about you how your life is going is a great way to clear your mind and bring insight you may have never realized on your own.

The perspective of someone who loves you and knows you should always be a welcome one. How are you supposed to know that you’re loved if you never talk to those who love you?

Whether you live 50 miles or 500 miles from home, it can be all too easy to take the “out of sight, out of mind” approach when it comes to your relationships. Maybe you have time constraints or maybe you just plain forget, and there may always be a reason not to call home. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

For every reason that you can find not to call friends and family, there are almost always more reasons why you should. There may be a day when you can’t just pick up the phone and talk to them, so do it now while you can. You won’t regret it.

It’s the sharing of laughs and tears that we go through that allow us to build on those already-strong relationships. Most people discover who they want to be in college, and your loved ones want to meet and know that person as well. If you don’t pick up the phone now, when will you?