Struggling with a Distant Friend

I have a friend, we used to be really close. We talked all the time and we were pretty much best friends. Then roughly a year and a half ago they started college, and they started ghosting me periodically. I didn't mind since college is really busy, but then it became frequent, and I started getting kinda frustrated. It felt like I was the only one putting effort into the friendship. When this school year began they started ghosting me for 1-2 months at a time. Understandably their life did get busy, but it became a pattern: they tell me something that happened, we talk a tiny bit, then they ignore me for a while. They just texted me for the first time in over a month again. A lot is going on and I wanna be supportive, but I feel so disappointed. I don't even know if I want to respond to them this time. Not sure if I should just text back again or if I should give myself some space.