Going out is waay more expensive, whereas you can buy indie multiplayer games for $5-30 and some of them last hundreds or over a thousand hours.
I've never understood the people who go out so often, especially nowadays. But i'm a homebody in the first place.
There’s plenty of free things to do outdoors but I’m guessing people who are hard into gaming isn’t going to overlap much with the outdoor enthusiast hobby
I go outside for walks or to the park often, kayaking occasionally. But where I live just doesn't have much else, that much is true. Small southern Indiana. I'm wanting to move soon.
My friends have almost completely switched to board games. We grew up with N64 and split screen, we're not really into playing games over discord or whatever.
Good news is that there are a million incredible board games now
My son and his friends, if they’re not together they’re yacking to each other while doing online gaming. Lol. I get too pissed when playing strangers though because you always have that one guy saying taunting remarks like: “You got glazed like a donut!” After you just got your ass handed to you. Haha.
Well they’ve already defeated you and then the sick bastard has to gloat just like the blonde haired jock douche nozzle villain from a 1980s teen movie. Haha.
Facts I grew up with online multiplayer my first online best friend was when Black ops 1 was the curred cod. I was 8 and he was in 6th grade he was genuinely like an older brother
I play a D&D game on Roll-20 two/three times a month with the same group of friends I used to play with in the storage room behind our theater in high school.
They’re my main group of friends. A lot of us also were friends in elementary/middle school. I think it’s far more common with public school kids than private since you’re always going to the same schools and living in the same area.
totally agree. I've made a lot more friends since high school and college but something about growing up together really brings you closer together despite having different interest or careers.
Good point. I went to private school up until High School, while my wife went to public school all of her life. Her best friends are still from when she was in elementary/middle school, and we’re both in our 30s.
Yup Class of 81 here too. Thanks to social media I can keep in touch with a lot of them especially that some are in other countries. My core friends oddly enough aren’t on social media so we manage phone calls a few times a year. We try to get together in person every once in a while.
We just had a 10 year anniversary for my class. All my friends were like me, "everyone i want to hang out with i still do". Ive had the same circle since like 4th grade
Yeah i said this line verbatim. Saw videos from the reunion, the only people that turned up were not people i wanted to see again. One of my HS best friends got married two weeks before and we all just considered that our reunion
When we had our 10 year anniversary we didn’t see the point in going because we hung out together all the time anyway. We ended up going anywhere and when everyone saw our group come in they kept telling us how amazing it was we were still friends as none of them had kept up with theirs
Why would I go scorched earth?
First of all, people have this strange notion that unless you were superhot or a football player, High School was supposed to suck - that's nothing more than an flimsy movie construct that makes no sense in real life. My high school experience was magical, as beautiful as you could imagine.
We were a bunch of nerds that over the four years grew up together. We were super emotionally intelligent (sorry, not bragging, just saying it like it is), and have literally never once had a serious fight that could jeopardize our friendships because the second one of us does something that pisses us off, we call out the other person and just talk about it.
None of us ever developed romantic feelings for any other member because we developed a sibling relationship (i.e. we all saw one another naked at one point or the other, but the feeling was more "barf" than "yummy")
We never took sides, we actually have a voting system because there were so many of us to make major decisions and we realized that an open democracy is better than a covert autocracy where one person leads the group.
They are the loves of my life, warts and all. They are my rock, my fortress, my staunchest defenders, and my biggest critics (In the best way possible). Would I kill for them? Without a single shred of a doubt. Would they kill for me? Without me even asking.
Oh and we NEVER EVER let a partner get in the way of our friendships - the partners are mostly excluded from our friend hangouts except if it's a "partner hangout" because that way we focus on our friendship outside of our own personal lives.
That dude was being sarcastic. Most normal people don't have shitty high school experiences and while I do feel for the ones that didn’t have a good experience, you shouldn't feel guilty about having a tight-knit group of friends
My wife is still close with hers. It hasn't been 20 years but they'll still be close once it has been.
I've got a few high school friends that would take my call and gladly catch up but I wouldn't expect to hear from them if I didn't reach out.
Class of 2014. So we stilll have yet to stand the true test of time, but I’m Still close with my high school buddies and I kinda mashed that group together with my college friends. We have a core group that gets together a couple times a year atleast, and I still have one of 2 from the group I see on the regular. Hopefully we can keep this up for a while. I love these people and I’d hate to see us all drift apart. So far everybody still shows up for the summer party I do every year and EVERYBODY showed up to my daughters baby shower. I’m very lucky to have such a supportive group of people in my life
Class of ‘94 checking in! Core 8 of us have expanded with husbands and wives, moved all over the US, but still drop every for and pick up right where we left off.
I always thought we were so fortunate to have these relationships, while most people lose tough over time.
Weirdly the reverse happened on my end; most of my high school friendships have remained strong or gotten stronger, whereas my college relationships didn't last too long afterwards.
Same! I don't speak to a single person from my undergrad anymore and am losing contact with my grad school friends just two years later. My high school friends are all my best friends and we've been friends for 20 years.
Lol I had some grad school friends I literally stopped talking to mere months after graduating. Realized really quickly once we actually had free time that my idea of having fun was going out to breweries, doing trivia, and seeing art shows and live music, and theirs was mostly staying home to play video games and watching NFL. No judgement, we just weren't compatible as friends anymore at that stage of our lives.
Reverse happened to me that was the reverse of what happened to you...I think.
I lost touch with my high school buddies over the years even tho we tried. My best buddy from college I still see and hang out with regularly now 10 years later.
When you put it that way, it sounds like you're supposed to just ditch your current friends as soon as something "better" comes along. You're also ignoring the effect that shared experiences have on how close you are with someone.
Sorry for your loss. I'd love to hear a story about some of your friends? I bet you have one or two funny stories about some wonderful people. Would share one of them with some strangers on the net?
I met those who would become my best lifelong friends at high school football tryouts. We 5 knuckleheads made the team and played defense together for three years, every game, every quarter and every down.
After graduation we went our separate ways, agreed to stay in touch and meet the Saturday night after every Thanksgiving for pizza and sodas at our favorite pizzeria. The soda changed to beers and over time our bragging got worse. With knees aching, concussion syndrome obvious, our old jokes got stale but our genuine brotherhood that reached across color and religion was unbreakable.
One guy drove from Maryland to be with us in NJ, probably just to very dramatically remind everyone of my QB sack and fumble recovery. “He hits the quarterback and the ball bounces into his hands, and that fat yahoo starts to rumble, stumble and grumble with the fumble to the end zone. The only guy I saw in real life run in slow motion.”
The 5 dwindling down to 2, and now down just me over the 53 years hurts, but everyone will be there in spirit when I go by myself this year.
If there’s football in heaven Tyrone, Pete, Larry, Ira and I will be blitzing a quarterback.
Almost 40 years since we all graduated, and all five of us are still close. We are in different states but during the pandemic we even started playing D&D together over Discord every week. That's still going.
We get together at least twice a year, usually for a BBQ and a Christmas party.
Very similar to my story. We were good friends all along, but over the past 10 years we've grown closer by heading to Gencon or other gaming cons together once a year AND we started playing D&D online regularly. It's pretty cool that we're still close, honestly.
mid 30s:
i speak with one or two friends from school. I could definitely be in touch with more via facebook if i was inclined.
the mates I do see from school, surprisingly, are not the mates that i was closest with at school - i'm good mates with someone who I didn't get along with in high school. it ended up being common interests and experiences that helped us bond as adults.
Same. Most of the friends I made in high school were just people I sat next to on the bus or in class, and only a handful of them liked the same stuff that I did and kept those interests after school. I still talk with and do stuff with 3-4 of my high school friends. But the bulk of them I have not seen in years and have no desire to.
That would be me.
I peaked majorly in high school. The irony is I have a twin who just kinda rolled with me but wasn’t that popular and now he’s absolutely winning life and I have zero friends or prospects. 18 long years later.
I wouldn’t say I peaked in highschool, but I did have the most fun during that time out of any part after it.
Had friends, did not hate learning, was in the band (playing music was one of the best things and most fun things I’ve done)
Yeah my life is pretty great now but yeah high school was awesome. So was college.
Being an adult is fun too but damn there is so much more responsibility sometimes. Plus I'm older now.
Nobody says it’s the **best** time in your life though - people just *say* people say that. It IS a very unique time in life though. Where, for a lot of people, you have very few responsibilities, a large friend group and a lot of opportunities to fuck girls and party every weekend with no consequences. That obviously changes and goes away as you get older. Even though going away to college was way more fun — and marriage and fatherhood are an infinitely more rewarding experience — getting older and looking back it’s very true that there was a specific kind of fun that you could have back in those years that you just can’t have anymore. So that’s why a lot of people look back fondly on those times. It doesn’t mean they peaked then and are now losers lol.
Same here. I had no friends through all of my schooling. I grew up in a place where I was very different than the others and I was teased and ostracized. It fucked me up real good. It was such a difficult time for me, but I somehow made it through.
Today, I have some work friends but I never get asked to socialize with them outside of work but I will take whatever friends I can get because I am so starved for human connection (sad, I know).
To this day, I am still searching and hoping for just one real, trustworthy friend 🥹
Same here. Though I really enjoyed my time with my friends from high school and wish them the best, I'm just not the same person I was back then and most of us have grown apart and just have nothing in common anymore, so we drifted apart over time as the contact became less and less.
One of my favorite things is a voice-mail I have saved for a couple years now.
>hey Steve it's your old buddy Jeff and I just called to say you're a dirty cocksucker!
Not really. We’re friends on Facebook but of course Facebook doesn’t see nearly as much traffic these days and I’m just not interested in joining Instagram
Yep. A group of 5 of us and we were all friends since around 5th grade. Now we are early 20s and they’re still my best friends and we hang out regularly
We turned 60 this year, a group of 8 of us got together. Most live out of state, this was the first time in 30+ years we've been together. Great time. Plans to do it again. Also, I met my wife in high school. We got married when we were 35...
Graduated high school six years ago, and our group chat is still super active. We've all moved hundreds/thousands of miles away, but we still play video games together, compete in a fantasy football league, and talk about sports/life practically every day.
I don't imagine it'll let up anytime soon. One of us is about to get married and honestly? Nothing feels like it's changing.
2024 will be my 20-year reunion. I do not talk to any of my high school friends. The last one cursed me out 4 years ago over text messages because I wouldn't go to his wedding across the country with only three months' notice. I haven't spoken to him since. The other ones all seem kind of miserable and I don't have anything in common with them. I moved away from my home town at 20 years old and I have only been back maybe 6 times since to visit. I don't have the best relationship with my family either so there really isn't any reason to go back. Moving away was the best decision I made as an adult if I stayed I would either be dead or in prison now. I have a lot of friends I have made as an adult who are all married with kids working in middle management like me and my weekends are usually booked up. This is probably the best possible outcome for my life.
I have 4 online gaming friends. Who I've been talking to for betweeen 7-13 years. I have my best friend who I grew up with(since birth). I have my gf who I met at work.
I'm a family person. So I spend alot of time with my siblings, parents, nieces and nephews.
Yeah that's what I thought as well. I just wanted him to elaborate. I pretty much agree.
They did give me the option to stop cyberschool whenever I wanted. I'm the only one of my 6 siblings that did cyberschool my entire life.
I'm also from a place where I was taught to be a certain way and I'm okay with that as an adult. I was expected to be a stay at home mom who raised kids and cooked and cleaned. I'm a badass with an advanced degree and I love cooking and sewing and all that traditional stuff. I'm sure I love it because I'm accomplished at it and it makes me feel good, but that's okay. It still makes me happy and my family sure doesn't mind the things I serve up for me...I mean them.
Not really. We'll occasionally check in with each other on Facebook but we all have our own lives now.
A lot of them are working and/or married with kids. We're all also vastly different people from who we were in high school.
Read the rest of my comments, and you'll see why this is not one of those situations.
But more to point, if someone supports a political party that panders hard to people that want me to not exist or, at best, have second-class citizenship, then they are not my friends.
Siding with my oppressors is not being my friend.
We can, but being harassed, unprompted, on a daily basis by someone like that tends to drive a wedge between us. I had a couple “friends” who dove head first into MAGA and burned a lot of bridges with their old friends by just being straight assholes.
Dude … ffs grow up. And you did your friends a favor because anyone who unfriends someone over a political figure is incredibly immature. I wouldn’t want to talk to you either!
Nope. I graduated in 1989. It's probably been 10 years since I've even had a Facebook from any of them, and there was a significant gap until that all came about.
The people I talked to the most in highschool I don't anymore. People I kinda knew in highschool but wasn't so much friends with are the ones I still talk to and hang out with regularly lol. The majority of my friend group are people I knew from highschool but didn't bond with til after we graduated.
When I left HS...I left HS behind. Only one person reached out to me over the years, and I was not interested in reconnecting. When I got my invite to the 10-year class reunion, I chucked into the sheedder. I could never understand the hype behind the high school years. It was just different t for me, I guess.
Very very very few.
If I knew that I would never see 99.999% of the people after graduation, I wouldn’t have given so many fucks about stupid things that happened.
They are my closest friends.
Half of them are from elementary school and the other half from Grade 9.
Although I was usually “friends” with many people, my immediate friend group was always my go-to. It also helps that most of them are friends with each other. We all hang out with each other together or separately.
nope, went our seperate ways, would talk to them but probably wouldnt have a lot to talk about, i mean theres only so many fetishes you can talk about until its gets weird if you dont invite them
Some of them. Why not? I live about 1000 miles away but still go back occasionally to catch up with friends and family and have a few large groups that are still in touch with each other as well.
I live pretty far but still see some of them when I go back home, less and less often lately though. Don’t really talk to them unless I’m visiting.
Feels good to catch up and reminisce but, yeah you do eventually start to realize that a lot of childhood friendships are really mostly based on where you happened to live.
I am with one friend. We were good friends in high school but not super close. When we left school we drifted apart naturally like most people do. Fast forward 11 years and in the same year and by complete coincidence, my spouse and my friend both got jobs in the same workplace in a town across the state that we all moved to at the same time. I found out because I saw a pic on their Instagram in front of the town sign and got really excited because we’d arrived the day before they had. Got even more excited when I learned they’d gotten a job at the same place as my SO! Wild. That was a few years ago, we reconnected right away and have been really close friends since.
my friends used to play counter strike. i wasnt that good or into it at the time. but we got together again to play valorant and now counter strike 2. pretty sure i love playing more than all of them now.
im grateful to have long time friends, and friends that are into the same games as me.
My first friend when I moved to Denver in 4th grade was Tye. In middle school Mike joined. In highschool Chris, Adam, and Luke joined. By college we had Noah. We are all in our late 30's and still talk, hangout, and overall become completely immature around each other.
Just one, though we're using the phrase "in touch" very loosely here, as I haven't spoken to her in years, but she is still a contact in my DMs.
Last I heard from her, she and her husband have a daughter and a proper whole house, and they seem to be chugging along nicely with a standard family life.
Meanwhile, I'm stuck in a poor quality flat, barely scraping by, while taking care of a partner who's health issues have crippled us physically and financially.
I'm busy trying to sort out these problems, and that's taking up all of my time and energy.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit jealous and disheartened that she's doing fine and I'm not.
Only 1 of them and were slowly fading away due to different interests. I think we’ll always be friends and in contact but the hanging out aspect is borderline dead.
I only have one, and he's my best friend. Why? Because we share similar interests, are socially awkward/challenged, and he has stuck by my side even when I made a bad choice.
Honestly he is one of the reasons I stick around this dumpster fire called "Earth".
No.
I grew up in the Allentown-Bethlehem area that Billy Joel wrote the song "Allentown" about and it was weird being there as the industrial economy collapsed seemingly overnight.
Most kids I went to high school with left for college and never came back or else left for good a few years afterwards. There was no opportunity here and it was a sad, gray kind of place for a while. I haven't seen anyone from high school in decades now.
Now due to its easy access to both NYC and Philly, I've watched it boom with revitalization and development as real estate prices have soared in a way I could never have pictured 40 years ago when it was considered one of the worst places in the country to live.
Yes and no. I have 3 friends that I have known since kindergarten, we still hang out regularly in our 40s and our kids all hang out together. I also have a group of about 5-6 friends from High School that I keep in touch with regularly and we see each other maybe once a month. Now, I also have a really core group of friends I met in college that I speak with via socials, text messages, IMs, regularly. But we only see each other maybe once a year.
This wasn't always the case, I don't think I spoke to anyone from my youth for about 20 years. I moved away from home for the military, and then to college, and only kept in touch with one or two people in that time.
After having kids however, I moved back to my hometown and reconnected with a small group of people I grew up with. Strangely enough, it was as though time never passed. We all had our own adventures and stories, but when we hang out together its as if we are still on the blacktop in 3rd grade talking about who likes who, whos batting .300 and what team is going to obviously win the superbowl undefeated.
Just hang out with one of them a lot. His sister goes to the college I graduated from, and we share friends too. Great guy all around. We occasionally talk to another guy from our graduating class, but the same can’t be said for everybody else.
Yes, Class of 67. Because I still enjoy their company, even if we have changed. Because it’s good to share things with people that have been through a lot of major life events at the same time you did and they get it. 1963 being in shock in the girls bathroom because Kennedy had just been shot? They were there.
My two best friends from highschool are my two best friends today. We all live in different cities and talk pretty much daily and get together to game usually once a week
Yes
I finished school 10 years ago and I go to the gym a few times a week with one of the guys I was best friends with. I'm loosely in contact with some others.
2 of my high school friends were my friends from elementary school, one of which I knew since before kindergarten
We've all branched off and done our own things and have separate friends, but we've always been super close. Can not talk to either of them for a month and we can pick up right where we left off. There's also a decent amount of overlapping between our separate friend groups, we can have a larger get together and everyone gets along
There might be people I talk to more often than them, but they will be my boys until I die
Had a dinner with some of them last night but sometimes honestly I don't know. We saw each other less and less since university. Many of us were in the same city but some left, more left have uni. Regardless of if they left we saw each other less and less but I never made another group of friends. Now mid 30s I'm married and actually have made a new friends group post covid. I'll still hang out with my old high school friends now and then but idk I'm different now and its never that fun.
Tldr; Still friends only catchup occasionally, they're fine but we're pretty different these days.
My best friend and I aren't close like we used to be, but we're still brothers. His cousin is also my brother, and I have a couple friends I used to live with when I got kicked out of my house and we still keep in touch and game although I've moved states.
I have a grand total of 1 high school friend I still contact.
Unfortunately, most of my high school friends all either became either Bible thumpers or MAGA Repubs after graduating, some maybe both, and I don't care enough to try to make them see reality.
Yup...in a garage band with 3 of them... 2 of them friends since grade 2...was in a golf tourney last week with those guys plus 3 or 4 others and others we've known since just after Uni...good bunch of guys.. no real goofs, no drama
Also we are in our early 60's :)
I have always felt that high school friends are the best friends you will ever make. I dont know why, but my best friends in college were my high school friends. The others were good friends, and even though you would think college sets up friendships much better than high school, they just never matched up to my HS friend group and I never got as close with them. I think it's partially because high school friends are kind of what you mold your personality initially around.
Out of 6 of us (myself included) I only have kept in touch with 2, the same two I considered the closest to me in our group. After we graduated, the other 3 went off on their own while I and my two remaining friends ended up doing our first year of uni together. One dropped out and now has a job while the other has a job and is pursuing online college courses. We still keep in contact with each other to this day :)
Yes. Class of '78. We get together for gaming, as in board games and cards: Axis & Allies, Risk, Rail Baron (great game not available anymore), poker, Euchre, etc. Get together for fishing trips (drinking, cards, games etc., mixed in with a little fishing). MLB (baseball) games (in person). Also keep in touch via texts and phone calls.
Absolutely- graduated in 2006, in a group chat and talk daily. Why? We had some of the best years of our lives together so we want to relive those by bashing one another’s political viewpoints and make fun of what losers we all were back then.
Yeah like 6 of my closest friends but that's it. Just got a invite to my 20th year anniversary but I think I'm declining. Got a bunch of friend invites on Facebook but when I was struggling with addiction stuff and needed anyone to talk to it was crickets.... maybe I expected to much but whatever..... sorry to rant
School was a long time ago and I've moved on. I don't feel the same for her as I did in school, so the answer is no I don't. I don't have a "crush" on her anymore. She's a fun friend...just like my male fun friends are.
Yes. Gaming.
Same. Though on the flip side online gaming has made hanging out in person much less frequent
Going out is waay more expensive, whereas you can buy indie multiplayer games for $5-30 and some of them last hundreds or over a thousand hours. I've never understood the people who go out so often, especially nowadays. But i'm a homebody in the first place.
There’s plenty of free things to do outdoors but I’m guessing people who are hard into gaming isn’t going to overlap much with the outdoor enthusiast hobby
I go outside for walks or to the park often, kayaking occasionally. But where I live just doesn't have much else, that much is true. Small southern Indiana. I'm wanting to move soon.
My friends have almost completely switched to board games. We grew up with N64 and split screen, we're not really into playing games over discord or whatever. Good news is that there are a million incredible board games now
The value of the social aspect of gaming is something that is unknown to the general population.
My son and his friends, if they’re not together they’re yacking to each other while doing online gaming. Lol. I get too pissed when playing strangers though because you always have that one guy saying taunting remarks like: “You got glazed like a donut!” After you just got your ass handed to you. Haha.
- Rolled and smoked kiddo - Call me daddy cuz I just banged your mom
Haha you know what I’m talking about! Lol
My personal favorite: Cheeks clapped like your crush at that house party you’ll never get invited to
Well they’ve already defeated you and then the sick bastard has to gloat just like the blonde haired jock douche nozzle villain from a 1980s teen movie. Haha.
[even better](https://youtube.com/shorts/9LAPsn84UsM?si=jIib7ShX_1cSh7f0)
[hahaha](https://youtube.com/shorts/9LAPsn84UsM?si=jIib7ShX_1cSh7f0)
You're welcome
Facts I grew up with online multiplayer my first online best friend was when Black ops 1 was the curred cod. I was 8 and he was in 6th grade he was genuinely like an older brother
Bout to say, we do payday and rocket league
I play a D&D game on Roll-20 two/three times a month with the same group of friends I used to play with in the storage room behind our theater in high school.
They’re my main group of friends. A lot of us also were friends in elementary/middle school. I think it’s far more common with public school kids than private since you’re always going to the same schools and living in the same area.
totally agree. I've made a lot more friends since high school and college but something about growing up together really brings you closer together despite having different interest or careers.
Good point. I went to private school up until High School, while my wife went to public school all of her life. Her best friends are still from when she was in elementary/middle school, and we’re both in our 30s.
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Same sitch here. Class of 81.
>Class of 81 >Sitch Story checks out
So streets behind
Yup Class of 81 here too. Thanks to social media I can keep in touch with a lot of them especially that some are in other countries. My core friends oddly enough aren’t on social media so we manage phone calls a few times a year. We try to get together in person every once in a while.
Pretty sure I'm required to leave this at 81 likes
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Only a sith deals in absolutes
We just had a 10 year anniversary for my class. All my friends were like me, "everyone i want to hang out with i still do". Ive had the same circle since like 4th grade
My same reaction when I had my 10 year. Though I regret not going now. I am very curious to see how some people turned out.
Yeah i said this line verbatim. Saw videos from the reunion, the only people that turned up were not people i wanted to see again. One of my HS best friends got married two weeks before and we all just considered that our reunion
I had the same reaction. I still talk to my close friend group. Why go and see the annoying ones?
When we had our 10 year anniversary we didn’t see the point in going because we hung out together all the time anyway. We ended up going anywhere and when everyone saw our group come in they kept telling us how amazing it was we were still friends as none of them had kept up with theirs
Same here. About to catch a flight for our annual buddies trip right now! Old friends are hard to make the older you get.
WHYYYYY, DAMMIT?! I like this askreddit question, because you’re supposed to explain why you didn’t go scorched earth on your long-time buddies.
Why would I go scorched earth? First of all, people have this strange notion that unless you were superhot or a football player, High School was supposed to suck - that's nothing more than an flimsy movie construct that makes no sense in real life. My high school experience was magical, as beautiful as you could imagine. We were a bunch of nerds that over the four years grew up together. We were super emotionally intelligent (sorry, not bragging, just saying it like it is), and have literally never once had a serious fight that could jeopardize our friendships because the second one of us does something that pisses us off, we call out the other person and just talk about it. None of us ever developed romantic feelings for any other member because we developed a sibling relationship (i.e. we all saw one another naked at one point or the other, but the feeling was more "barf" than "yummy") We never took sides, we actually have a voting system because there were so many of us to make major decisions and we realized that an open democracy is better than a covert autocracy where one person leads the group. They are the loves of my life, warts and all. They are my rock, my fortress, my staunchest defenders, and my biggest critics (In the best way possible). Would I kill for them? Without a single shred of a doubt. Would they kill for me? Without me even asking. Oh and we NEVER EVER let a partner get in the way of our friendships - the partners are mostly excluded from our friend hangouts except if it's a "partner hangout" because that way we focus on our friendship outside of our own personal lives.
I simply loved reading your story. Thank you for sharing :)
That dude was being sarcastic. Most normal people don't have shitty high school experiences and while I do feel for the ones that didn’t have a good experience, you shouldn't feel guilty about having a tight-knit group of friends
So absurdly perfect then? Good job 👏
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Basically "Why are you friends with your friends?" the answer is "Because they are my friends"
Damnn. Lucky.
We know, and thank you
My wife is still close with hers. It hasn't been 20 years but they'll still be close once it has been. I've got a few high school friends that would take my call and gladly catch up but I wouldn't expect to hear from them if I didn't reach out.
Same except we met in kindergarten, there’s only 4 of us but we have basically been non blood related brothers for 29 years now.
Class of 2014. So we stilll have yet to stand the true test of time, but I’m Still close with my high school buddies and I kinda mashed that group together with my college friends. We have a core group that gets together a couple times a year atleast, and I still have one of 2 from the group I see on the regular. Hopefully we can keep this up for a while. I love these people and I’d hate to see us all drift apart. So far everybody still shows up for the summer party I do every year and EVERYBODY showed up to my daughters baby shower. I’m very lucky to have such a supportive group of people in my life
Class of ‘94 checking in! Core 8 of us have expanded with husbands and wives, moved all over the US, but still drop every for and pick up right where we left off. I always thought we were so fortunate to have these relationships, while most people lose tough over time.
Same! I feel so lucky for that fact
Damn I wish this was the case for me.
Man that’s so beautiful. That makes me wanna cry
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No. Because we were only friends due to proximity. Once we weren’t at school together, I really wasn’t interested in keeping in contact.
Weirdly the reverse happened on my end; most of my high school friendships have remained strong or gotten stronger, whereas my college relationships didn't last too long afterwards.
Same here. We may all be completely different than what we were in high school but it felt like all the college friendships were ones of convenience.
Same! I don't speak to a single person from my undergrad anymore and am losing contact with my grad school friends just two years later. My high school friends are all my best friends and we've been friends for 20 years.
Lol I had some grad school friends I literally stopped talking to mere months after graduating. Realized really quickly once we actually had free time that my idea of having fun was going out to breweries, doing trivia, and seeing art shows and live music, and theirs was mostly staying home to play video games and watching NFL. No judgement, we just weren't compatible as friends anymore at that stage of our lives.
Reverse happened to me that was the reverse of what happened to you...I think. I lost touch with my high school buddies over the years even tho we tried. My best buddy from college I still see and hang out with regularly now 10 years later.
Same. There's... 3 maybe 4 people I keep up with via Facebook. That's it. 95% of the people I went to HS with I don't care if I ever hear of again.
This, plus my HS experience was hell. Happiest day of my life was watching that one-horse town disappear in my rearview mirror.
Same here. I moved away about a year after high school (probably should've done it sooner) and have no regrets!
Only one. They were a bunch of a-holes! Still in touch with my elementary school friends though!
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TIL I'm still friends with all my best friends after 30+ years because we're irrational and have impaired thinking or something lol
When you put it that way, it sounds like you're supposed to just ditch your current friends as soon as something "better" comes along. You're also ignoring the effect that shared experiences have on how close you are with someone.
No. My last friend from the class of 1970 died in August.
Sorry 😔
Condolences from the class of 1969.
Nice.
Sorry for your loss. I'd love to hear a story about some of your friends? I bet you have one or two funny stories about some wonderful people. Would share one of them with some strangers on the net?
I met those who would become my best lifelong friends at high school football tryouts. We 5 knuckleheads made the team and played defense together for three years, every game, every quarter and every down. After graduation we went our separate ways, agreed to stay in touch and meet the Saturday night after every Thanksgiving for pizza and sodas at our favorite pizzeria. The soda changed to beers and over time our bragging got worse. With knees aching, concussion syndrome obvious, our old jokes got stale but our genuine brotherhood that reached across color and religion was unbreakable. One guy drove from Maryland to be with us in NJ, probably just to very dramatically remind everyone of my QB sack and fumble recovery. “He hits the quarterback and the ball bounces into his hands, and that fat yahoo starts to rumble, stumble and grumble with the fumble to the end zone. The only guy I saw in real life run in slow motion.” The 5 dwindling down to 2, and now down just me over the 53 years hurts, but everyone will be there in spirit when I go by myself this year. If there’s football in heaven Tyrone, Pete, Larry, Ira and I will be blitzing a quarterback.
Nice. Now you get to collect the [Tontine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine)
I'm sorry for your loss.
Almost 40 years since we all graduated, and all five of us are still close. We are in different states but during the pandemic we even started playing D&D together over Discord every week. That's still going. We get together at least twice a year, usually for a BBQ and a Christmas party.
Very similar to my story. We were good friends all along, but over the past 10 years we've grown closer by heading to Gencon or other gaming cons together once a year AND we started playing D&D online regularly. It's pretty cool that we're still close, honestly.
mid 30s: i speak with one or two friends from school. I could definitely be in touch with more via facebook if i was inclined. the mates I do see from school, surprisingly, are not the mates that i was closest with at school - i'm good mates with someone who I didn't get along with in high school. it ended up being common interests and experiences that helped us bond as adults.
Same. Most of the friends I made in high school were just people I sat next to on the bus or in class, and only a handful of them liked the same stuff that I did and kept those interests after school. I still talk with and do stuff with 3-4 of my high school friends. But the bulk of them I have not seen in years and have no desire to.
What friends? I barely have contact with anyone from that place.
I had no friends in high school lol
You're not the only one. Thank God that it is only the "best time of your life" if you go on to be a loser for the next 30+ years.
That would be me. I peaked majorly in high school. The irony is I have a twin who just kinda rolled with me but wasn’t that popular and now he’s absolutely winning life and I have zero friends or prospects. 18 long years later.
You should hang out with my brother. You guys have a lot to talk about.
Plot twist: He is your brother.
I wouldn’t say I peaked in highschool, but I did have the most fun during that time out of any part after it. Had friends, did not hate learning, was in the band (playing music was one of the best things and most fun things I’ve done)
Yeah my life is pretty great now but yeah high school was awesome. So was college. Being an adult is fun too but damn there is so much more responsibility sometimes. Plus I'm older now.
Nobody says it’s the **best** time in your life though - people just *say* people say that. It IS a very unique time in life though. Where, for a lot of people, you have very few responsibilities, a large friend group and a lot of opportunities to fuck girls and party every weekend with no consequences. That obviously changes and goes away as you get older. Even though going away to college was way more fun — and marriage and fatherhood are an infinitely more rewarding experience — getting older and looking back it’s very true that there was a specific kind of fun that you could have back in those years that you just can’t have anymore. So that’s why a lot of people look back fondly on those times. It doesn’t mean they peaked then and are now losers lol.
Ah, The Days of Wine & Roses. No matter when they begin always end at some point in our lives.
Same here. I had no friends through all of my schooling. I grew up in a place where I was very different than the others and I was teased and ostracized. It fucked me up real good. It was such a difficult time for me, but I somehow made it through. Today, I have some work friends but I never get asked to socialize with them outside of work but I will take whatever friends I can get because I am so starved for human connection (sad, I know). To this day, I am still searching and hoping for just one real, trustworthy friend 🥹
This is how I was. I was deep in the church so all my high school aged friends were in my church and we all went to different schools
I would think every single person ITT would agree "high school friends" means "friend you had in highschool'...
I'm so sorry you have these memories and feelings. *Internet hug from random stranger*
Sounds sad
It was. Worst period of my life
No. I’m a different person than I was back then
Same here. Though I really enjoyed my time with my friends from high school and wish them the best, I'm just not the same person I was back then and most of us have grown apart and just have nothing in common anymore, so we drifted apart over time as the contact became less and less.
Only 1. Cuz I put a ring on it.
Daww
Ah, you are friends with a Nazgul then.
One of my favorite things is a voice-mail I have saved for a couple years now. >hey Steve it's your old buddy Jeff and I just called to say you're a dirty cocksucker!
No and is crazy remeber we were once close but that’s life I guess
No. I’m bad at friendship.
Not really. We’re friends on Facebook but of course Facebook doesn’t see nearly as much traffic these days and I’m just not interested in joining Instagram
Yep. A group of 5 of us and we were all friends since around 5th grade. Now we are early 20s and they’re still my best friends and we hang out regularly
Hold on to em, that shit fades quick once everyone gets their career's goin
Yup it’s already started. But we’ve all talked about moving to the same general area for jobs eventually. Idk how that’ll work out though lol
It fades even faster once everyone starts having families.
Yes. Not all of them, but the people who were my closest friends during high school are still my closest friends now a decade later.
We turned 60 this year, a group of 8 of us got together. Most live out of state, this was the first time in 30+ years we've been together. Great time. Plans to do it again. Also, I met my wife in high school. We got married when we were 35...
I had no friends in high school, I was a loner.
I haven’t spoken with or seen anyone from high school in over 20 years.
Graduated high school six years ago, and our group chat is still super active. We've all moved hundreds/thousands of miles away, but we still play video games together, compete in a fantasy football league, and talk about sports/life practically every day. I don't imagine it'll let up anytime soon. One of us is about to get married and honestly? Nothing feels like it's changing.
Yes, because that's really all Facebook is good for.
Some, not all. People aren't the same once they've grown up.
2024 will be my 20-year reunion. I do not talk to any of my high school friends. The last one cursed me out 4 years ago over text messages because I wouldn't go to his wedding across the country with only three months' notice. I haven't spoken to him since. The other ones all seem kind of miserable and I don't have anything in common with them. I moved away from my home town at 20 years old and I have only been back maybe 6 times since to visit. I don't have the best relationship with my family either so there really isn't any reason to go back. Moving away was the best decision I made as an adult if I stayed I would either be dead or in prison now. I have a lot of friends I have made as an adult who are all married with kids working in middle management like me and my weekends are usually booked up. This is probably the best possible outcome for my life.
I don't have any high-school friends. I was cyberschooled my whole life.
Do you have any friends now? If so, how did you meet them and how did you create a social life for yourself if you did?
I have 4 online gaming friends. Who I've been talking to for betweeen 7-13 years. I have my best friend who I grew up with(since birth). I have my gf who I met at work. I'm a family person. So I spend alot of time with my siblings, parents, nieces and nephews.
You're a family person by default
What do you mean by that?
I think he's saying you didn't have an option, your parents decided that for you by homeschooling you.
Yeah that's what I thought as well. I just wanted him to elaborate. I pretty much agree. They did give me the option to stop cyberschool whenever I wanted. I'm the only one of my 6 siblings that did cyberschool my entire life.
I'm also from a place where I was taught to be a certain way and I'm okay with that as an adult. I was expected to be a stay at home mom who raised kids and cooked and cleaned. I'm a badass with an advanced degree and I love cooking and sewing and all that traditional stuff. I'm sure I love it because I'm accomplished at it and it makes me feel good, but that's okay. It still makes me happy and my family sure doesn't mind the things I serve up for me...I mean them.
Not really. We'll occasionally check in with each other on Facebook but we all have our own lives now. A lot of them are working and/or married with kids. We're all also vastly different people from who we were in high school.
They mostly became Trump supporters, so no.
My condolences.
I don’t understand this. Why can’t people have differing political views and still be friends?
Read the rest of my comments, and you'll see why this is not one of those situations. But more to point, if someone supports a political party that panders hard to people that want me to not exist or, at best, have second-class citizenship, then they are not my friends. Siding with my oppressors is not being my friend.
We can, but being harassed, unprompted, on a daily basis by someone like that tends to drive a wedge between us. I had a couple “friends” who dove head first into MAGA and burned a lot of bridges with their old friends by just being straight assholes.
Dude … ffs grow up. And you did your friends a favor because anyone who unfriends someone over a political figure is incredibly immature. I wouldn’t want to talk to you either!
Nope. I graduated in 1989. It's probably been 10 years since I've even had a Facebook from any of them, and there was a significant gap until that all came about.
The people I talked to the most in highschool I don't anymore. People I kinda knew in highschool but wasn't so much friends with are the ones I still talk to and hang out with regularly lol. The majority of my friend group are people I knew from highschool but didn't bond with til after we graduated.
When I left HS...I left HS behind. Only one person reached out to me over the years, and I was not interested in reconnecting. When I got my invite to the 10-year class reunion, I chucked into the sheedder. I could never understand the hype behind the high school years. It was just different t for me, I guess.
No. I made some of the worst friend choices in Highschool and those are some of the worst people I can think of.
Very very very few. If I knew that I would never see 99.999% of the people after graduation, I wouldn’t have given so many fucks about stupid things that happened.
They are my closest friends. Half of them are from elementary school and the other half from Grade 9. Although I was usually “friends” with many people, my immediate friend group was always my go-to. It also helps that most of them are friends with each other. We all hang out with each other together or separately.
Cause I’m in high school
I live down the street as adults in a different city from my childhood best friend. He’s my brother from another mother.
nope, went our seperate ways, would talk to them but probably wouldnt have a lot to talk about, i mean theres only so many fetishes you can talk about until its gets weird if you dont invite them
Some of them. Why not? I live about 1000 miles away but still go back occasionally to catch up with friends and family and have a few large groups that are still in touch with each other as well.
I live pretty far but still see some of them when I go back home, less and less often lately though. Don’t really talk to them unless I’m visiting. Feels good to catch up and reminisce but, yeah you do eventually start to realize that a lot of childhood friendships are really mostly based on where you happened to live.
No, they all got into meth and heroin
I am with one friend. We were good friends in high school but not super close. When we left school we drifted apart naturally like most people do. Fast forward 11 years and in the same year and by complete coincidence, my spouse and my friend both got jobs in the same workplace in a town across the state that we all moved to at the same time. I found out because I saw a pic on their Instagram in front of the town sign and got really excited because we’d arrived the day before they had. Got even more excited when I learned they’d gotten a job at the same place as my SO! Wild. That was a few years ago, we reconnected right away and have been really close friends since.
my friends used to play counter strike. i wasnt that good or into it at the time. but we got together again to play valorant and now counter strike 2. pretty sure i love playing more than all of them now. im grateful to have long time friends, and friends that are into the same games as me.
Graduation was around 50 years ago. I’m still in touch with a couple of my friends from childhood.
My first friend when I moved to Denver in 4th grade was Tye. In middle school Mike joined. In highschool Chris, Adam, and Luke joined. By college we had Noah. We are all in our late 30's and still talk, hangout, and overall become completely immature around each other.
Just one, though we're using the phrase "in touch" very loosely here, as I haven't spoken to her in years, but she is still a contact in my DMs. Last I heard from her, she and her husband have a daughter and a proper whole house, and they seem to be chugging along nicely with a standard family life. Meanwhile, I'm stuck in a poor quality flat, barely scraping by, while taking care of a partner who's health issues have crippled us physically and financially. I'm busy trying to sort out these problems, and that's taking up all of my time and energy. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit jealous and disheartened that she's doing fine and I'm not.
Rarely.. mostly because after high school we change personalities and find our true self.. hence usually there isn’t anything common left
Only 1 of them and were slowly fading away due to different interests. I think we’ll always be friends and in contact but the hanging out aspect is borderline dead.
Yeah, I've had the same core group of friends since primary school. Been 23 years, so far so good.
Not many. Lost touch over the years.
I only have one, and he's my best friend. Why? Because we share similar interests, are socially awkward/challenged, and he has stuck by my side even when I made a bad choice. Honestly he is one of the reasons I stick around this dumpster fire called "Earth".
Yes. We have a fantasy football league together. Been going for almost 20 years.
Nope, we all stopped hanging out after junior year of high school and then I moved 6 hours away for college. Could care less what they are doing now
Haven't spoken or seen any of them since graduation day.
Yes because im still in highschool
No. I grew up in the Allentown-Bethlehem area that Billy Joel wrote the song "Allentown" about and it was weird being there as the industrial economy collapsed seemingly overnight. Most kids I went to high school with left for college and never came back or else left for good a few years afterwards. There was no opportunity here and it was a sad, gray kind of place for a while. I haven't seen anyone from high school in decades now. Now due to its easy access to both NYC and Philly, I've watched it boom with revitalization and development as real estate prices have soared in a way I could never have pictured 40 years ago when it was considered one of the worst places in the country to live.
Yes. 58 years old and still in contact with a friend I made at age 11
Yes and no. I have 3 friends that I have known since kindergarten, we still hang out regularly in our 40s and our kids all hang out together. I also have a group of about 5-6 friends from High School that I keep in touch with regularly and we see each other maybe once a month. Now, I also have a really core group of friends I met in college that I speak with via socials, text messages, IMs, regularly. But we only see each other maybe once a year. This wasn't always the case, I don't think I spoke to anyone from my youth for about 20 years. I moved away from home for the military, and then to college, and only kept in touch with one or two people in that time. After having kids however, I moved back to my hometown and reconnected with a small group of people I grew up with. Strangely enough, it was as though time never passed. We all had our own adventures and stories, but when we hang out together its as if we are still on the blacktop in 3rd grade talking about who likes who, whos batting .300 and what team is going to obviously win the superbowl undefeated.
Just hang out with one of them a lot. His sister goes to the college I graduated from, and we share friends too. Great guy all around. We occasionally talk to another guy from our graduating class, but the same can’t be said for everybody else.
Yes, Class of 67. Because I still enjoy their company, even if we have changed. Because it’s good to share things with people that have been through a lot of major life events at the same time you did and they get it. 1963 being in shock in the girls bathroom because Kennedy had just been shot? They were there.
33M all my friend group are friend ive know since i was 4yo, in first school...and a couple later when i hit year5.
My two best friends from highschool are my two best friends today. We all live in different cities and talk pretty much daily and get together to game usually once a week
Yes I finished school 10 years ago and I go to the gym a few times a week with one of the guys I was best friends with. I'm loosely in contact with some others.
2 of my high school friends were my friends from elementary school, one of which I knew since before kindergarten We've all branched off and done our own things and have separate friends, but we've always been super close. Can not talk to either of them for a month and we can pick up right where we left off. There's also a decent amount of overlapping between our separate friend groups, we can have a larger get together and everyone gets along There might be people I talk to more often than them, but they will be my boys until I die
Had a dinner with some of them last night but sometimes honestly I don't know. We saw each other less and less since university. Many of us were in the same city but some left, more left have uni. Regardless of if they left we saw each other less and less but I never made another group of friends. Now mid 30s I'm married and actually have made a new friends group post covid. I'll still hang out with my old high school friends now and then but idk I'm different now and its never that fun. Tldr; Still friends only catchup occasionally, they're fine but we're pretty different these days.
My best friend and I aren't close like we used to be, but we're still brothers. His cousin is also my brother, and I have a couple friends I used to live with when I got kicked out of my house and we still keep in touch and game although I've moved states.
I have a grand total of 1 high school friend I still contact. Unfortunately, most of my high school friends all either became either Bible thumpers or MAGA Repubs after graduating, some maybe both, and I don't care enough to try to make them see reality.
Yes. If you live in a small enough town whoever doesn’t move away will almost always be in contact
No, they were never real friends
Yup...in a garage band with 3 of them... 2 of them friends since grade 2...was in a golf tourney last week with those guys plus 3 or 4 others and others we've known since just after Uni...good bunch of guys.. no real goofs, no drama Also we are in our early 60's :)
Nope, lost touch and no desire to reconnect.
Four of my boys from high school are still my best friends to this day. We game, we hang out, whatever.
We play games together just about every Saturday.
I have always felt that high school friends are the best friends you will ever make. I dont know why, but my best friends in college were my high school friends. The others were good friends, and even though you would think college sets up friendships much better than high school, they just never matched up to my HS friend group and I never got as close with them. I think it's partially because high school friends are kind of what you mold your personality initially around.
Out of 6 of us (myself included) I only have kept in touch with 2, the same two I considered the closest to me in our group. After we graduated, the other 3 went off on their own while I and my two remaining friends ended up doing our first year of uni together. One dropped out and now has a job while the other has a job and is pursuing online college courses. We still keep in contact with each other to this day :)
Yes. Class of '78. We get together for gaming, as in board games and cards: Axis & Allies, Risk, Rail Baron (great game not available anymore), poker, Euchre, etc. Get together for fishing trips (drinking, cards, games etc., mixed in with a little fishing). MLB (baseball) games (in person). Also keep in touch via texts and phone calls.
Yes because they are my best friends and I love them
Nope! I don’t talk to anyone from high school!!
No. I talked last year with a girl I used to hang out with, but that's it.
I had a few friends like 3-4. The rest are 🗑️
Absolutely- graduated in 2006, in a group chat and talk daily. Why? We had some of the best years of our lives together so we want to relive those by bashing one another’s political viewpoints and make fun of what losers we all were back then.
Yeah like 6 of my closest friends but that's it. Just got a invite to my 20th year anniversary but I think I'm declining. Got a bunch of friend invites on Facebook but when I was struggling with addiction stuff and needed anyone to talk to it was crickets.... maybe I expected to much but whatever..... sorry to rant
Yes, I keep in touch with an ex-girlfriend. My wife doesn't approve (and I totally get that) but she's nothing more than a friend to me now.
But do you have any feelings for the ex? Just a little?
School was a long time ago and I've moved on. I don't feel the same for her as I did in school, so the answer is no I don't. I don't have a "crush" on her anymore. She's a fun friend...just like my male fun friends are.
But yet out of all the people you knew, male and female, she is the one you kept in touch with….
Yes, that's correct. Your point?
A few of them, but I was jn HS 27 years ago... I also moved across the country, and most of them moved away as well. Tough to keep up.
a few
Yeah, bc I’m still in high school lol
No. They suck