Eleven (holy crap) years ago, I was living it up during my first semester as a college freshman at a state college. I was having the time of my life. So much so, that I actually cried when I went home for Thanksgiving break. Dude… it was ONLY A WEEK. (Don’t even ask how much I cried when I had to go home for that first summer vacation, ha!) But I loved my life at school so much that I wanted to stay there 24/7/365.
Luckily for me, during the very first month, I had already met the girls who would become my core group of friends–and they remain so to this very day. I don’t remember how we all met, but several of the girls were pairs of freshman roommates. (Oh, and two are twin sisters–they’ve obviously know each other much longer than the rest of us.) Somehow, we all clicked and stuck together through the four years at school, and the seven years that have followed.
Sure, there were times with drama. Lots of drama. (We were girls, after all. Girls who lived together.) In fact, during those four years, we saw two girls exit our group. A new girl was brought into the fold (and remains!). Another faded away after we graduated, since she was the only one who moved far away from home. But seven years after leaving our quaint college town and crossing over into adulthood, our core group of seven is still here. Through I don’t even know how many break-ups. Six engagements. Five weddings. Countless new houses/apartments. One stalker (I wish I was kidding). Three pregnancies. And now, three babies.
We don’t see each other as often as we’d like, because trying to coordinate seven busy schedules? Tough stuff. But when we do, it’s like we’re back sitting on the floor of one of our dorm rooms. Together again. Except now, there are little rug rats who join us–which is still kind of hard for us to grasp when we’re together.
Seriously, we’re old enough to have kids?? :)
Beware of 2012, because… we’re all turning THIRTY. And I’m sure we’ll all celebrate that, too.
How do you keep in touch with your friends from college, despite busy lives? How often do you plan group gatherings? What do you do when you get together? Do you find that things are just like old times, or have things changed dramatically?
3 Responses to Friends Forever
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About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
College was the best. My college roommate is still my best friend. She lives in Arizona and is pregnant with her second baby right now. It is hard because we don’t talk or see each other very often but the memories of our time in college are so awesome it for sure brings us together. You are so lucky that you still have a big group!
I have a similar group of college girlfriends, but I was kind of the late-comer to the group as I lived with them my junior year. There’s 8 of us, and 6 of us live around Minneapolis. We have been through 7 weddings, 15 pregnancies (3 happening right now!) and 6 babies… it’s nuts. The final 2 are getting married this fall.
We try to plan to hang out as a local group once a month. We do a big holiday dinner every year with spouses and kids. Every 2-3 years we try to plan a vacation with everyone and when the out of towners come back, we usually get together too. We are in the middle of our 30th birthday years too (since we span 2 school years) so there has been lots of celebrations going on :) I’ve always been the group organizer, but we all make an effort to keep in touch over google chat or email mostly, and facebook. If it’s been awhile since we’ve seen each other, it’s likely that someone will organize something. I don’t think we’ve ever gone longer than a month without seeing ANYONE from the group.
I’m so thankful for them and glad we’ve been able to stay together despite the fact that we’re all very different!
I don’t have a core group of college friends, or a core group from any part of my life! My closest friends are from different stages and normally don’t know each other. So we try to fit in lots of one-on-one time, but it’s definitely hard. I’m not that great at staying in touch and always berate myself for it.