Old friends

Nov 25 17:52 UTC 1994

one of the things about growing up is that friends will often move away. 
heck, sometimes *you'll* move, esp. if you're going to college 
somewhere else. do you keep in touch with these friends? are there
people you wish you'd kept in touch with from your chilhood? do you
think about these old friends often?

response 2 of 103:

Nov 25 19:30 UTC 1994

Friends tend to come and go, as long as you know...
or something like that.

Seriously now...


I've had too many people who said they were my friends just fade right out of
my existence.  It's traumatic to say the least.
I always hope that my TRUE friends will never fade, but I've only recently
found a few true friends and I haven't really known them long enough
to see if we are friends enough, or true enough friends, to keep our friendship
from fading.  Those few I consider true friends... I hope they feel the same
and would like to be friends for a long long time.

response 4 of 103:

Nov 26 03:01 UTC 1994

        I think of some of my pre-school friends from time to time, and
realize that I cant't even remember their names.  For all I know, I may be
friends with some of them again and not even know it.
        The first friends I have really specific memories of were my
friends in Kindergarten, in CAlifornia.  I sill have fond memories of all
those people, and wonder what they would be like if I went back to Palo
Alto to look for them.  I haven't seen any of them since my return to Ann
Arbor right before the start of first grade. 
        The friends I still see, but do not really associate with anymore,
are those from early elementary school.  Some of them I don't see anymore,
and some of those I do see I am still friends with, but for the vast
majority of them, the friendships have died down a little as our interests
have diverged.  It's kind of sad, since I realize that some of thes
epeople who were really good friends then are right there and I don't
really know anything about them now.
        Another group of friends that I have gotten completely seperated
from are my friends from my year in England.  I had some really strong
friendships there, but it's still kind of hard for fourth graders to keep
up a friendship when seperated by a few thousand miles of water.  I keep
hoping to see some of them show up on Grex, but I haven't seen that yet.

response 6 of 103:

Nov 27 07:11 UTC 1994

Well, to start, this is Treelawn but he's in party right now and I'm to lzy to
log back on..
        I've had many friendships that have seemed to just drop away into
        nothing, usually very suddenly.  Most of these have happened in
        transitions from schools, but the biggest have happened for really no
        reason that I can find. The first friend I lost was from Nursery School
        believe it or not
.  We were best friends from really since we were born, we lived a few streets
away. When I was four, we were four, he moved to Marquette.  I was to young to 
realize what was happening, and I really made new friends very quickly.   Not
until recently when his mother started taking classes at the UofM during summer
vacations did we really meet again.  This past summer his mom didn't  take
classes so we weren't really together, he spent a week with me at my house
which was great fun.  But he's really a friend, a true friend that I've
somewhat lost.  Recently I got a bad letter from him concerning his life etc,
and I just feel so  bad that I cannot be there to help him.
        Other friendships I've had have faded from school to schools, 
suddenly I'm not in the same classes, and we slightly fade away.  Worse in
the middle school-high school transition because many good friends go to
a different school now.  
        Well now you've had a lovely look into my life, I guess friends
are really something we have to honor because if we don't pay attention to them
they deteriorate (sp
[A)?..

response 8 of 103:

Nov 28 01:09 UTC 1994

I have a few friends I've really managed to keep up with, Sunny for one. Even
when she moved to Ann Arbor we kept in touch.  Some of my 'best friends' from
elementary schools I've totally lost touch with.  I'm sort of sad when I lose
friends, or when they just fade from my life- but I realize that we have all
just grown apart, and there's nothing I can do about that.  As we grow older
we change, and that means we will develop lives and interests that our friends
may not share, and just drift away.  I've kept in contact with some friends
from high school, and I'm glad of that.  They were my good friends, and even
though I have made new friends in college, I wouldn't trade the old.

response 10 of 103:

Dec 1 13:40 UTC 1994

most of my friends from when i lived in illionois i remember, but i wonder if
they remember me.  there is one friend there that i have stayed in contact
with, but i know that i haven' talked to her in over 8 months.  most of you
know lynne.  she and i have been inseperable since third grade.  the 
true friends that i have had have mostly stuck with me, but there are a
few that have wandered off into the mists.  there was one person that was
like a twin to me (and actually a cousin, we found out one day!) who
decided to let her life go to hell.  she now hangs around smoking acid and
other nasties.  i really wish that i could have kept ehre.

response 12 of 103:

Dec 2 14:10 UTC 1994

what was so interesting about the phrasing?

response 14 of 103:

Dec 4 00:45 UTC 1994

re #10....I know how you feel.  My closest friend growing up was a year
younger than me and when I left for college, he started to do a lot of
pot and crack....I'd go home and we'd go out drinking, but I'm not into the
drug scene at all!  Despite the fact he got a 30 on the ACT, he had
a 0 GPA his first semester at the University of Illinois, was kicked
out of there and then went back to the community college at home
where he proceeded to get a 0 GPA there too (he stopped caring about 
showing up for class).  He's now working at a Cracker Barrel at home
and the last time I talked to him, he thought that college was a waste
of time and had no desire to go back...it was tough for me to let go, 
and it took me a long time to understand that things had changed, but
I guess it's the dark side of growing up......(this was hard to read, wasn't
it?)

response 16 of 103:

Dec 5 22:56 UTC 1994

I was watching tv the other day ans two WB bunnies said the secret to life was
FRIENDS... that hit me like a ton of bricks in grade school I was the
minority...  in my class I was one of four non-locals. ans I cought a lot
offlack from that and have not really bounced back yet.  My best friend for the
first 7 years was  the class clown and a really fun person but he moved a way
and we have not talked since.. for the next 3-4 years Jesse Jannetta..some of
you might know him... was my best friend..  he was  a really smart kid who did
a lot with me and one day he had to move.. we tryed to keep it up but after a
week trip togeter toa camp we never talked again... untill 5 months ago..I
called him ....but It was too late and we have growen apart

really gets to me ... if the secret to life is friends and I can not make them
then I must be fucked....  :( but at least I have my old high school friends
and maybe time will alow me to slowly meet new people who will really want to
be my friends.

response 18 of 103:

Dec 7 14:25 UTC 1994

money is nothing if you don't have friends and loved ones to spend it on.  ;:) 

response 20 of 103:

Dec 8 15:23 UTC 1994

i'm lucky...for the most part, my friends are like that!  :)

response 22 of 103:

Dec 11 02:07 UTC 1994

I never made a lot of friends until high school.  I still don't have MANY.  
I was an asshole in my early years.  Just ask dang.  Fortunately for my 
concept of self-worth, I don't remember many of them.  I don't make friends
very well, but I treasure the ones I have.  The only thing I can think of in
my life that is more important to me than my friends is my relationship w/God.
I suppose you could say that He's a friend, too, but it's a little more than
that.  Anyway.  Not even my family is as important to me as my friends.  I 
don't think I even do it consciously.  I just always seem to have enough
time for them.  I like that part of myself.  I have never really lost any
friends.  There are some that I have grown apart from, simply because I
matured and they didn't, but I have never had anyone really important to
me just up and move out of reach.  The closest to that was when lynne
moved to chicago for college, but she still visits, and she is still on
grex.  I think that while friends may not be the only meaning to life,
they are certainly one of the good parts.  

response 24 of 103:

Dec 19 20:01 UTC 1994

I have a friend named Kathleen who moved to Florida a little over two 
years ago. We keep in touch by letters but we would really like to see
each other in person. We are more than friends, though neither of us
have ever readily admitted it. I think we're both afraid they might just
be misunderstandings of what we say or do.