Friday OT - All My Friends

[Angie]

It may be easiest to explain this one by example.

I have a few different core groups of friends - a few from school, several mom friends, some couple friends and individual relationships that are offshoots, and work/volunteer friends. I think most likely mom friends and couple friends/combinations are my closest.

When you think of your closest core group of friends, are they the same people with whom you went to grade school? Are they friends from a club? Work? How has this changed over time?

 

[urb1]

I have a close group of eight friends from college. We were on the same floor in the Towers for four years. We do a lot together (concerts, camping, golf). I also have groups of friends from three jobs and one from church. Finally, there is a group of grade school friends, mostly from the Detroit area, with whom we communicate mostly by email.

 

[Cyclonepride]

It may be easiest to explain this one by example.

I have a few different core groups of friends - a few from school, several mom friends, some couple friends and individual relationships that are offshoots, and work/volunteer friends. I think most likely mom friends and couple friends/combinations are my closest.

When you think of your closest core group of friends, are they the same people with whom you went to grade school? Are they friends from a club? Work? How has this changed over time?

I have a good group of friends from high school, though they're scattered all over the place so we mainly stay in touch online. The rest of my friends are people I've worked with over the years, and most of them, if I'm not still working with them, have remained golfing buddies. I do have a few friends that I met through golfing too.

 

[JP4CY]

Mine are mostly college based. I feel like it really opened up my perception on music, food, travel, other towns, other families.

Like, I would have never seen an Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeroes concert eons ago if an old college friend didn't ask me to go.

 

[baller21]

I’ve got friends in low places…

 

[cowgirl836]

Largely don't see my college friends anymore which makes me sad to think about - we were so close in school. We do still chat here and there but it's been a while since in person. Closest in person friends are fellow survivors of a former workplace - that's one group, another is a mix of pre-kid friends who now have kids and live close by + childcare+neighborhood friends. A newer third is what I call 'we have the same enemies' - my activism friends. There's pockets - some may be more state or national issues, others are very local.

 

[GMackey32]

My closest friends are from college and my tailgating crew. I don't really keep in touch with my high school friends that much anymore due to distance and diverging interests.

 

[FarminCy]

Used to have a core group of couple friends that we did everything together. Going through a divorce slowly killed that, over time even the men I was super close with stopped reaching out. When you are just one you no longer fit into a couples circle of friends. I was told by one of the wives it’s just a bit awkward having me around (even though my ex was the one off having affairs). Divorce teaches you a lot about true friends vs convenient friends.

Moving on from pity party. Have a good small circle of people I’ve met through hobbies and social life. Keep in touch with a good number of college friends but live nowhere near them. Very close with two of my high school friends but only see each other twice a year. Came from a family with over 20 cousins and consider some of them closest friends too, but also only see them a couple times a year.

Friends are super important, but they take effort as well. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized I need to put more effort into good friendships as well as moving on from those I don’t consider true friends. Life is too short to be around fake friendships.

 

[wxman1]

We have kind of twoish core groups of friends. One small set are lifelong (one guy I have been best friends with since we were like 3) from high school. And then another core group are more "life stage" friends that our kids are friends and we get along well with. The high school friends are somewhat loose as most of us have moved around and we are each at a little different life stages with family and kids.

 

[Frog]

My main group of friends consists of some kids and neighbors I went to school with, and will live and work around me for life.

My second group includes my married friends, who were initially friends of my wife but have become my friends as well. I'm glad that I get along well with these people.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

Main group - about 5 of us college friends living on freshman dorm floor. 3 live in Chicago, 1 in Detroit, 1 in Memphis.

Work group - about 8 of us that started the same day at work (out of 60-70). Mostly Charlotte based actually.

City group - about 6 that live in Chicago I hang with regularly (with 3 that overlap with Work and Main)

I rarely talk with any high school or grade school friends these days.

 

[BoxsterCy]

It's a couples world and since I am flying solo as a senior getting included to socializing stuff is sort of rare. Exception being photography friends, that's sort of a solo gig. Just did FB count and since COVID (lots of people doing outdoor stuff than) I've met a lot of photog friends, added 18 as FB friends and know a few others I consider friends so maybe know 25-30 photogs locally.

People like to mock FB and "friending" but it's a way to stay in touch with people you met out on birdabout walks. I am not the kind of guy who sends "friend requests" willy nilly (or much at all) but got all of those invites which opens the door to chatting and sharing photo hot spot tips etc. Now, a few of these folks only friend people to try and piggyback on some sighting you may have posted a photo of but most are friendly just common interest hobbyists. It's become the backbone of my old man social interaction (see "couples world" comment)

• Old college friends - dwindling, lost some over politics and some are just TOO old for me and just sit at home.
• Neighborhood friends - Level 1 = folks you invite over for a deck party, Level 2 is folks you just talk to on walkabouts through the hood.
• Works friends - retired so starting to lose touch with them.
• Photograph friends and acquaintances - Group got way bigger as I got more active in bird photography hobby.

 

[dahliaclone]

You know two of them, @Angie! From junior high through college to now, still chat with them almost daily via text and see each other when we can.