Old Friends Are Not like New Friends

Old friends are not like new friends. If you have friends that you've known since you were very young, you may realize the importance of this one. You must remember that when we make friends, it's usually because situations or circumstances bring us together. If you make friends now, as an adult, your friendship begins based on your adult observations. And, as an adult, you are who you are based on years of events, choices, and experiences. Therefore, the friends you make as an adult tend to have more in common with you in terms of your current lifestyle and attitude than your old friends. We are simply attracted to people who are similar us. So! Let us go back to your childhood friends that you made when you were between 5-13. You became friends because you may have simply lived on the same street (no one else to play with), you sat next to each other in class (no one else to talk to), or you liked their hair, dress, or shoes (all of which their mom picked out, not them). So to have old friends hanging around is an amazing feat considering there weren't a lot of parameters in the friendship to begin with. Chances are, you and your old friends have chosen very different paths in life. Your lifestyles are probably different, and the chances of holding the same social, political, or religious views are slim. So what should you do?

Base your friendship criteria on the same standards you used when you were 10! Comment on your old friend's appearance. This would be consistent with getting on the bus and giving each other a morning analysis on hair, shoes, and underwear lines. Like the family, avoid politics and religion, but you have free reign with the subject of relationships with your old friends. In fact, they have the most accurate and complete picture of you as a person than anyone, even your family. They've known you longer. They know about your all your old boyfriends, especially the gross ones, and they know about any trouble with the law you may have gotten into before becoming "responsible". Gossip is great with old friends because it's what you used to do all the time in school. It's an expression similar to creative swearing and a lot of times your old friends don't personally know the new friend you are gossiping about and they always take your side. Rehashing old gossip and stories about people outside the old friend network from school is the most fun. It's a great way to feel young again. And for some reason, you and your old friends don't care how many times you retell the same story. It's a ritualistic prelude to senility and everyone still laughs as hard. Old friends are your only connection to a time in your life when friendship was the only thing that mattered, so it's important to keep them and keep that in mind when seeing them again.