With social distancing rules in place, people are choosing to find different ways to stay connected with all their friends. 

Whether it be face-timing friends, goofing off with peers during a class zoom, or staying six feet away from a friend during a walk, there are many ways to keep in touch while following regulations. Teenagers are naturally social beings, so it’s important for them to keep connected with friends. One student, Aidan Gralinski, senior, is one of many who has been finding ways.

“Just recently I did a birthday parade for my friend […] where everyone close to him drove past his house and honked their horns to celebrate his birthday,” Gralinski said. “With us not being able to celebrate in person, I thought that the parade was an easy way to get everyone together.”

But if being in separate vehicles is still too much separation, Gralinski says that he’s still open to hanging out with friends in person. But, if it’s a large group, following some type of separation is still important to him.

“My family recently met up with a few other families for a bonfire. But to make the bonfire ‘safe,’ all families had to stay six feet apart from each other at a time,” Gralinski said. “It was hard to stay six feet apart at all times, but we all tried our very best.”

Gralinski isn’t the only one who’s pursuing socially distanced get-togethers. Abby DeGustino, junior, has also found a way to hang out with friends while following social distance rules, with car circles, where a group of friends all drive somewhere, park their cars in a circle and hang out in their trunks.

“Car circles are so much better than just face-timing your friends because you actually get to see everyone in person,” Degustino said. “It almost feels like everything is back to normal in a sense.”

But when DeGustino’s not able to hang out with friends in person, she says face-timing or zooming her friends is still an effective way to keep in touch.

“Sometimes not everyone can come to a hangout. In that case, it’s always easy just to call a friend you may not have seen in a while,” Degustino said. “ I miss my friends a lot and I know everyone else feels the same. It’s so important to keep connected with friends through the mess that everything is right now.”