Did You Stay In Touch With Your High School Friends?

This is a question directed at you older folks on the site. I'm 19, a college freshman, though my gap year technically puts me a year behind my high school graduating class's standard college year. While I'm still in touch with some of my friends from high school, some of the closest ties have already been cut. It's late at night as I write this, and I'm starting to desperately miss people I last saw only a little over a month ago.

I want to know if you duders made an effort to stay close to the friends of your youth, and if you did, I want to know if you succeeded. Are you as close as you were back then? Are you closer? Have you grown apart, but still stayed in touch? If you have any meaningful relationships, I'd love to know about them. If not, I guess I'd like to know that too.

Thanks, gals and guys. Stay classy.

Yeah, my high school friends are still my best friends to this day. I also recently (as in some 8 months ago) re-connected with some of my best friends from middle school. I have some friends from college, but considering all of the friends I made in freshman year, a lot of them dropped off the map for some reason or another.

All my best friends are high school friends!

I've lost pretty much all contact with my high school and middle school friends, mostly because I moved across the country, and partly because in truth we probably weren't that close friends to begin with anyway.

I didn't like my high school friends, they were better than being alone, but not by a lot, I only regularily meet 3 guys from that time, one I never speak with another I only chat up if we bump into each other and the last one i've been actual friends with since fucking kindergarten, so I guess he would be the exception.

Never really had any friends, so no. I had a few that I thought were my friends for a few years in high school, but the longer it went on the more I saw we were never friends. So by the time High School ended I was back to being alone again.

I was not social enough to have friends in high school, had couple of good people to talk to, but nothing major. When I run into them on the street, I'm not even happy to see them. Things got a bit better in university, now I know a lot of great people, sometimes we have a beer or go to the movies, but I can not say that they are my FRIENDS. Acquaintances probably. But I don't really know how to define a word Friend...

Still, you guys are the best! *FOREVER ALONE MEME*

The group of people I hung out with in high school was just a bunch of people that didn't fit in with any other groups. I thought we were pretty close but the day after graduation, they all cut off contact and acted like they don't know me. Around Thanksgiving I ran into someone I had some classes with and he was saying that at our 10 year reunion people were saying that I had died. So, I guess that shows how much I have kept in contact with classmates.

A lot of my friends are people who I went to high school with. I don't talk to all my friends from then, but the people who I was closest too are still my closest friends.

I'm 35, and keep in touch with exactly one friend from high school. We don't see each other often due to conflicting schedules but we do communicate a few times a week or so.
 
Most of my high school friends were girls, and as they had kids and/or married I lost touch with them one at a time.

I live in southern california, so as we went to different colleges and universities we are still only like 20 minutes apart at the most.

I was fairly popular back in High School (I wanna say about 9 months ago), but I've only made an effort to keep in contact with a handful of people. With the exception of the people I still talk to on a regular basis, the others have already changed due to the college atmosphere. It's kinda funny how that works, but it doesn't bother me. In the event that I wanna talk to them, I could always hit 'em up on Facebook. Simple.

Only a few close friends. Most of us went our separate ways when college came around.

There are a couple that I speak with (via IM, so I guess not speaking, communicating) just about every day. Of course, they also go to the same college as me, so that helps. Everyone else I went to high school with? Not so much. Kind of a shame, really, but that's life.

I am a junior in college, just so you know.

Nope, got as far away from them as I could.

College and university though, yeah.

I'm 25 now and my group of 5 best friends are all my main duders from high school. At the age of around 18-23 or so we all had long, long periods where we didn't meet up and only kept in contact every now and then. This was purely down to university, college, work, relations, travelling and so on. We all had other groups of friends during this time too and that's just how it goes. However, once those years of growing up and exploring pass and if certain people come back to the same hometown/area, you'll be right back in touch properly again.
 
We've now been back in the swing of things as best friends for the last few years and it's awesome. Probably closer now than we were back then, I'd say. There are slight differences now, as we all have different commitments than we did back then. Girlfriends, living areas, jobs and so on have to be taken into consideration these days as opposed to just "let's play the xbox all night" or "let's go for a drink" at the drop of a hat like we used to. But everyone has to go through the stages where you'll all want to be trying and seeing different things so naturally you'll drift apart for a while. I feel fortunate that we all wound back up in the same place and no one turned into a dick along the way.

I'm 22 and a senior at my university, I'd say for the most part yes. That little group of close friends that I would hang out with every day are the same ones I hang out with when I go back home. All the "auxiliary" friends, that you were friends with but didn't hang out with all the time, we went our separate ways. It's kind of rough when you start getting all nostalgic, I guess, but for the most part it's not too big of a deal. I'm happy with who I stayed friends with

I'm a bit older than most of the folks here and the answer is "not at all". After college, we all drifted apart. Some moved to other parts of the country, work relationships became a prime focus, girlfriends took center stage and so forth. They were some of the best people I ever knew, but who I am today has nothing to do with who I was in high school. With the internet these days, I could probably get in touch with some if I really wanted to, but I'm just not that interested in reminiscing over old times. I have enough relationships in my present life with people who know me for who I am today. I have no regrets as far as losing contact goes either. People move in and out of our lives all the time. I've found it's more important to keep moving forward than the dwell on the past.

 I speak to a few sporadically and speak often and play games with one guy I met when I was around 14, we play Team Fortress 2 together and I worked for his dad for a while. We got banned from using computers at school for 'hacking' the computer systems. (all we did was get around the restrictions for installing applications, also found the password manager)
 
Although funnily enough, I speak often to 4 guys I've never met before but we've been playing games together since 2003. Yikes. It's gotten to the point where we essentially have our own inside memes.

@Simplexity said:

I've lost pretty much all contact with my high school and middle school friends, mostly because I moved across the country, and partly because in truth we probably weren't that close friends to begin with anyway.

That's the same story for me as well.

@Little_Socrates: Don't worry too much about losing contact with some of your friends from high school. You'll soon learn that in life, friends sometimes come and go. Whether it's because of logistics or bad blood that boils to the surface, things happen. Only the truest friends are those worth keeping.. the ones who'll stay by you (and ones you'll stay by with) during thick and thin. Some people suggest that keeping "friends" in contact, even those you don't even speak to, or have any common interests in anymore is a good idea for networking; this may be true, but at some point either party will ask themselves if it's really worth keeping up that facade.

They say people in your life for seasons, and anything that happen is for a reason.

I'm 22 now and I'm only friends with one person from highschool, and then one from elementary/middle/high. There are a couple more I would have if I saw them more, but the rest I come to find out I didn't really like that much anyway.

Yes and no. I don't really hang out with anyone much, but I still hang out with my best friend since sixth grade (2001), though rarely nowadays, but he's in contact with my two brothers, and my mom on Facebook, so he's kind of "part of the family" in a way. Not really. Other friends in high school I very, very rarely speak to. The last time I hung out with my other best friend (I would say I had/have at least three), was back in 09, when he came over to play games. It was around the time MW2 came out. The thing is though, no matter how long we're apart, it seems like we can get together any time and nothing really has changed other than what we've been doing with our lives (i.e. college, work, etc.). It's almost as if we were hanging out just the other day. I've never had a problem with that. By the way, not hanging with people I for some reason have no problem with. It may be because I'm surrounded by family, and after a certain amount of time, I notice it's all I really need, and once I make a family of my own (wife and kids), I'm sure that feeling will only strengthen.

No I didn't like most of the people from my high school....most of my friends are through work and sports.

I only had one real friend in secondary (high) school, partially by choice in that I didnt want more. I tried to stay in contact after school ended but he turned out to be a dickhead so I moved on and never regretted it. The friends I have now I met about 3 years ago in college, I still talk to them everyday and play games everday, meeting about once a week.

Funny thing about that whole situation. I am friends with someone I went to high school with. But, we weren't friends when we went to school together. We kind of ran into each other years later and hung out and have been buds ever since.

Most of them, except the ones who moved fa away and got famous and the ones who died. 
None of them moved far away and became famous, though. 

It's been two and a half years since high school and they are still my friends.

I've maintained ancillary contact with a few people simply because our paths post high-school have intersected a few times, but my best friend and I have kept in touch somewhat consistently for the past 12 years (oh god I graduated 12 years ago). We communicate in text at a minimum most days and usually get a few hours of game time in every week be it on LoL, ToR, or whatever the fighting game/co-op Steam game flavor of the month is.

I've lost touch with everyone else, including one close friend I made in college, but that's mostly because we had a bit of a falling out at the hands of my ex. Then again, I've never been one to keep very many friends.

I didn't stay in touch with any of my high school friends, save for one or two. In a lot of ways, I am happy with that decision. My own mindset and values changed a lot when I went to college. Realistically, I never really felt like I was friends with many of my high school peers. Yeah, I ran in certain social circles, but I never felt like I was a major part of any group, more like an outlier. I kept in touch with one of my best friends, and we still get together to this day. It does seem to me that a lot of my high school friends still act like they're in high school, which makes me happy about my own habits. Everyone is all about hitting the bars every weekend night, something that I got bored with in college. I'm 28, and my old high school band is still playing the same songs at shitty bars in town and working crappy jobs on the side. I'm pretty okay with my decisions.

I keep in touch with most and talk to a bunch of them regularly.

I'm a college freshman, so I guess not the target for your thread, but I still hang out with my friends from high school when I go home, and I share a dorm room with a friend from high school, so obviously we still talk.

Shit yeah man. All my best friends from high school, except for two, have been my best friends since about 2nd grade and are still my best friends in college.

I still talk to a lot of kids from high school. College makes it more difficult to see each other but there's always vacations and, you know, the internet to catch up with.

Yeah, my friends are mostly people from school.

I've gained some friends and lost some friends, but the funny thing is that they're all from school, whether I hung out with em at the time or not. Weird right?

I'm 20.

Also it's a good job, cos I work from home and don't meet people a whole lot :/

I try to...

One of them regularly, one occasionally, most no.

32 years-old and no, I didn't really keep in touch. I have one friend that I've known since elementary, but I haven't talked to him since New Years. He was really the only one I'd kept up with post high school. As with most of my other friends, he's onto his second marriage now. So yeah, once your get to my age you friends start dropping off. Makes you grateful for the few that stick around and the new ones you meet.

In the 6 years since high school I have only really kept in contact with one friend from my actual school, but I am still friends with most of the people I was friends with from outside of school then. Actually, I'm not in contact with anyone from college any more.

Nope. I don't really talk to anyone from high school anymore.

No and thank god for that.

I'm 28, the few friends from high school I care about we are in a band together, so that helps. Other than that, all my other friends are from college or work.

As you get older people will fade in and out of your life, especially with relationships, marriage, kids and so on. The only thing I can tell you is some people just won't make time to hang out with you regardless of how much you try or plan. The best thing to do is just find things that other people have an interest with you and continue on.

Or there is always Facebook.

Maybe 2-3 people. All in all from school I maybe keep in touch with around 15 out of around 100. (college, uni etc)

No collage so most friends are from high school

im 26 now. i literally hang with 0 people i used to see everyday in high school. people i swore i would be friends with forever. best friends i shared everything with. sometimes i get sad and i miss them. but thats life man.

edit: they are facebook friends if that counts.

I go to college with a few of my high school friends, and I am in near-daily contact with a few more of them. We play AoE2 together on occasion.

Nope. Not a single one.

And it's not like I was a poor friendless SOB that was tortured in high school. I had plenty of friends that I hung out with at school and at home, but everyone just kinda went their own way after graduation. I kept in touch with lots of people for the first couple months, but when you're done with school you realize just how much effort it takes to stay in touch with people.

Not to mention that, in my opinion, people don't really develop their real personality until they're out of high school. Those people you used to enjoy hanging out with will probably end up clashing with your personality in some big ways.

Not really no. I have two or three close friends that I still have contact with, and some I liked to meet up with but I haven't gotten around to it. It's been 3 years since I graduated, so a reunion seems unlikely.

@Cloudenvy said:

No and thank god for that.

Same here. I want to forget those years and move on with my life

Still really close friends with a core group of dudes from high school, I've been lucky enough to be a best man for two of the three that have been married thus far, and a Godfather for the one that managed to squeeze out a pup of his own.

Growing up just outside of a major city, we've all either moved in to the city or just around it so getting together, when we're all actually available, is pretty do-able.

Edit;

We're between the age of 28-30, as close as we all are now, there was some distance between us all during post secondary school as the schedule of school and the new social environments that come with it are pretty demanding. We'd still all get together over summers and do cottage trips and the like. My advice might be to make an effort to keep in touch and maybe try to plan fewer get togethers but plan them around things like birthdays or long weekends when people might be more available.