With commencement approaching, seniors are busy with interviewing for jobs, planning graduation parties and counting down the hours until they can turn their tassels. Those of us who still have a few semesters to go are cramming for finals and thinking about what school is going to be like without our graduating friends.

Unlike in high school when everyone knew exactly what their senior friends were doing after graduation, some seniors do not even know what will be the next phase of their lives, so it might make it harder for undergraduate friends to stay connected.

Rozy Kanjee, freshman in DGS, has a lot of friends who are seniors. As of lately, she has been talking to them about what they are going to be doing after graduation, where they will be living and whether or not they have a job lined up.

“I think that the age gap at this time is a struggling one,” she said. “Seniors are either getting jobs or already have one, and they are getting their foot in the door of the real world while we are all still trying to take our classes and really find out what we are doing in college.”

Erin Ostojic, freshman in Engineering, agrees that the age difference may make it difficult to sustain close friendships with graduating seniors.

“It’s hard to keep close relationships with people you don’t really see,” she said. “And depending on the age difference, you may not have as many mutual friends, which can also make it harder to maintain a close relationship.”

When trying to maintain a friendship with someone who’s graduating, one thing Kanjee believes is important to keep in mind is to stay committed.

“It’s a commitment thing,” she said. “If you really value that person’s friendship, then you will try to stay friends. You could be friends with someone who is in the same grade as you, and it takes a lot of energy to maintain that relationship.”

An easy way to stay connected can be as simple as posting on their Facebook wall every now and then. With everyone always being so busy, sometimes it is nice to get a friendly wall post just asking how your day is going.

Skype and phone calls are another way to stay in touch. It all comes back to what Kanjee said — it is about commitment. It does not take much to pick up the phone and have a five-minute conversation just about how things are going in life.

Some people are not so lucky when it comes to staying friends with their senior pals and lose all contact with them. They stop planning lunch dates, stop texting and forget to check up on their Facebook every now and then. This does not necessarily happen by choice, but sometimes that is the way things play out.

“I think people lose contact with seniors they used to be close to because of many reasons,” said Yahir De Leon, sophomore in FAA. “The graduate is probably busy looking for work or perhaps busy with this newly found work or graduate school. Also, I feel like some people have an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality and just simply forget to care or check up on old friends.”

Whether you have five senior friends graduating or just one, if you value the friendship, make the effort to stay in touch with them. Chances are they will appreciate a friendly call in the middle of their busy week in the real world.