In a perfect world, you'd meet the Monica to your Rachel and everyone you care about would live in the same place, Friends [1]-style, but that's just not realistic. More likely, you have BFFs located across the country or around the world, and you have to put in some true effort to maintain those long-distance friendships [2]. It can be tough to be apart from people you love, but there are definitely some serious upsides to those relationships. With the help of some GIF-worthy moments from our favorite TV pals, take a look at 11 reasons long-distance friendships are actually pretty awesome.

You can have coffee dates from your couch (or your La-Z-Boy), guilt-free.

You get a third-party view from someone who isn’t in your everyday group of friends.

You avoid the awkwardness of having to cancel plans on each other.

The long string of daily text messages is pretty much incredible.

It's easy because you avoid any BS about “when the last time you saw each other” was.

When you get together for yearly trips, it's like no time has passed at all.

Since you can't regularly show up at their door, you learn how to show love in more creative ways.

Your relationship is built on long, sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-deep conversations.

You're forced to come up with fun, original ways to stay connected.

When you DO see each other, it's all the more special.

Because there's true comfort in knowing your friendship is unconditional.