Everyone Says Dating Is Impossible Now. But I've Struggled More With Something Just as Important.

This is part of Advice Week: Friendship Edition. We'll help you make friends, leave them--and even sleep with them. Four years ago, my fiancé and I drove his Honda Accord to central Illinois with my boxes of sweaters and his computer monitor blocking our rear view. We knew no one in the town we were headed to except each other; we were there because he was going to grad school, and I could work remotely. Our only welcome party was the whir of cicadas perched in the trees, which I'd never heard before, but they delighted me so much I'd roll down the windows to listen whenever I was in the car.