Do you still have the same friends from childhood now?

MsQuinn

Started school at 4 years old in 1976 and still hang around with 7 of those who also started the same day - knew 2 of them from the estate we lived in anyway. Picked up more along the way.

Started secondary school in 1984 and the gang from 1st year are still my best friends. There's about 10 of us still really close even if we don't see each other due to being scattered between Ireland and Britain.

The meet ups are mental :-)

ILoveYourVibes

My father knows no one from his childhood at all bar his sister.

And only one person from his 20s a workmate.

But his life changed a lot.

My mother however has many school friends. They still have a lot in common whereas my father would have very little in common with his childhood friends now. That happens sometimes.

People change neighborhoods etc.

primary....I usually meet a few when im out on the town in the club/pub and do a few beers over chats
Secondary....same as above, but I see ones I hang around with, once a month for a catch up
College - 2 lads I was mates I made with from the first week are still my regular drinking buddies now and we go out at least once a week

Im 32

ILoveYourVibes

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

No. But then i had very few friends growing up.

Aww. I wish you'd been in my school. I'd have tried to be your friend, but some people didn't want to be friends.

If it's any consolation, the people in my old school who had no friends all went on to have the most interesting lives. One girl works on the Irish delegation to the UN in New York, and a 'loner' a couple of years ahead of me is a journalist for a national broadsheet.

I mean, there's also some guy who posts pictures of himself in S&M gear on Facebook but okay, we'll gloss over that.

lbc2019

No.

Primary School Friend!

lbc2019

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

No. But then i had very few friends growing up.

me too. Then as an adult I discovered I was on the autism spectrum so socially awkwardl.

My friends are the ones I made in college. Still meet them from time to time.

Your Face

No, I was still friends with a few until about a few years ago. You move on.

harr

Yeah and no , was part of a group of friends from mid primary school years. A small group of us remained friends all during secondary school.
One member of the group cut all contact when he left school and no one knew why and still don’t one member of the group became a very heavy drinker and started drugs in his late 20,s and was handful when ever we would go out ...he stole from a few of us and wasn’t very nice around woman and people in general.
We attempted to get him help and it was always rejected he currently lives in a run down bedsit and is single.
I remain good friends with two of the group and would go for drinks once a month.
Friends now nearly 40 years...

Pinch Flat

I have a few guys I’d know from primary school. We don’t really keep in tough, except maybe meeting for a pint at Christmas. Even that’s dwindled over the years as we’ve all got married, moved away, had kids etc. we meet more often now as funerals as parents, uncles, aunts etc die.

IAMAMORON

Yes and no.

Some die, some drift apart, move country, have different lives etc.

But I am still their friend for life and I would do whatever I could for them. You simply cannot keep in touch with everyone. Modern phones and computers do make it easier to keep in touch, which is nice.

I love automatically congratulating all my 459 friends on Facebook when it is their birthday. How cool am I?

Life moves on, babies, wives, families etc all take precedent over who you shared your toys with in fairness.

I would say it is rare if people can genuinely keep bonds from childhood, through adolescence, into adulthood and then middle and old age... all the world is a stage etc etc.

I do still have contact with two friends who I have known all my life, however I cannot genuinely say I have been close with them all my life. I could go for a scoops with them tomorrow, but I think our friendship is different now. Life moves on.

markc1184

Most of my school mates moved to Australia and Canada. My best mate has remained for 25 years.

Graces7

Stop moaning ffs wrote: »

Who’s your oldest friend age wise?
Mine is 75 and an expert on Bob Dylan and all things music.

well over 80. We taught at the same school in my first year of teaching.. she was my senior and a great support and we have stayed in touch all these years, bless her.

Another for nearly 80 years...she was born in the village during the war where I lived.

Thank you for this thread.

Squeeonline

I've moved around a lot - basically every major academic step I've moved to another country or across the country. I'm not in touch with people I was close friends with just 5 years ago.

I'm not great at the maintenance a friendship requires especially over distance so there are only maybe 3 people I talk to from 5 years ago, practically zero from before that. It's a bit sad when I think about it.

mad muffin

I have no friends. Only acquaintances.

mariaalice

Yeah, we user to walk to primary school together but we dont see each other that often now life happened one moved but we are still friends but when we meet up it like the years melt away.

RhubarbCrumble

Up to about 2 years ago I was still good friends with my friend from secondary school.
Then she had a baby and pretty much dropped me as fast as she could.
Apparently because I don't have kids myself I "wouldn't really understand her life now"

In reality she dropped me for all her 'mummy group' friends. That's actually what they all refer to themselves as "Meeting the mummies tomorrow now for lunch".

I can't say I wasn't upset over what she did, but looking back now I can see that she always looked out for herself first, all the way through school and I only mattered as long as I was useful to her.

Bandana boy

I would have one friend I see once or twice a year from primary school
Another two I know 30+ years from where we grew up
I have 5 I see all the time from secondary school and would take via the whats app group every day we would have met 32 years ago now.
Probably helped that 2 of us went to the same university and a few other lads we met in uni have folded into the same group.

Over the years kids and life have gotten in the way for each of us at different times but Rugby matches and concerts have always been great ways back in for anybody who has had to reduce contact for a while.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

I have a few friends from each stage of life.

My oldest friend and also one of my besties, I’ve known since I was five and she was seven. We went to different primary schools though. Same secondary, where she was the year ahead. She has lived in the UK for ages but the friendship endures. I have no close friends left from my own primary school but do chat to a few girls from there on social media the odd time.

In addition to my oldest friend, I have two other good friends from secondary school. One of them wasn’t actually a close friend of mine in school but we were always friendly. Our friendship circles overlapped. Then we became proper friends in our twenties.

Then I have two close friends from college and a scatter of acquaintances.

Then a few friends picked up here and there in post-college life.

I’m very happy with my lot, friend-wise. Not closed off to making new ones though!

Gimme A Pound

Only two. And one of them is not really from childhood but from first year in secondary school.

Nearly all my friends are from college, work and made through other friends.

I'm connected to a number of primary and secondary school friends on Facebook all right, but it's not like we ever meet up. Even though we keep saying we will.

Scarinae

I have one friend from primary school that I'm still in proper contact with, but we went to the same secondary school as well so we may not have stayed in touch if we hadn't. There are a few more that I'm connected to on social media but we'd be more acquaintances than friends, I wouldn't have their phone numbers for example.

Squeeonline

Squeeonline wrote: »

I've moved around a lot - basically every major academic step I've moved to another country or across the country. I'm not in touch with people I was close friends with just 5 years ago.

I'm not great at the maintenance a friendship requires especially over distance so there are only maybe 3 people I talk to from 5 years ago, practically zero from before that. It's a bit sad when I think about it.

well, it clearly hasn't bothered you before you were reminded to think about it, and evidently you're well able to develop friendships (which is more important, in my view), so I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Having said that, there are downsides to not putting the effort into maintaining friendships. I rarely speak to more than 2-3 people from throughout college. People I drank with, shared houses with, dated, occasionally fought and occasionally slept with now only hear from me when I like their family holiday pics on Instagram, or vice versa.

I regret allowing those friendships to diminish, because there's not always someone around who you get to reminisce with about funny, half-forgotten memories or interesting experiences of that fledgling adulthood.

In primary school, we were only half-formed individuals anyway, so I'm not sure there's much to reminisce on.

But as I said, I reckon it's far more important to be close to people in the present moment. Memories are just that, they're fleeting.

Graces7

mariaalice wrote: »

Yeah, we user to walk to primary school together but we dont see each other that often now life happened one moved but we are still friends but when we meet up it like the years melt away.

That is lovely!