Growing Apart

[lookashiny]

Did anyone else have a best friend as a kid that they ended up growing apart from?

I was best friends with a girl who lived across the street from me from when I was just an infant through middle school. Then we went in different directions, and we weren't friends anymore. I had other friends, who I had more in common with, but it still kind of sucked.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Yeah, pretty much my only age mate and I were glued together until we were about 16, and then after that... she came to my wedding? Haven't talked to her since.

[corvidology]

It happened to me but then that tends to happen when you move suddenly from London to the countryside.

My mother though is utterly amazing at this. She's kept ever friend she's ever made going all the way back to primary school. Well, except for the ones that have passed on.

[lookashiny]

Wow, your mom is amazing for that!

Moving would not help it at all, I can guess, especially in the days before social media is the way it is now.

[lookashiny]

That would be tough, especially if she was your only age mate.

My friend situation was kind of complicated by the fact that I went to middle and high school at a union school, so most of my new friends were from a different town than I was. It was a half hour drive, so we mostly saw each other at school.

[fairyglass]

Yes, and I'm still looking for her. My parents had a messy divorce and then the next 4-6yrs after we lived with my mother's parents and that was messy too. But I had a best friend all that time and she was funny and creative and really got me in a period in my life when I was desperately alone.

When my siblings and I were removed from that home, I lost contact with her. I was about 14 and this was when dinosaurs still roamed the earth without cell phones. Hell, PCs were still something only the rich had.

I regularly google her, but I've never had any luck. :(

[lookashiny]

That's too bad! I hope you find her eventually, but I know it can be difficult.

[firewhispers]

This exact same thing happened me. We were best friends since kindergarten at least and we lived right across the street from each other. As soon as sixth grade hit, we drifted. She went with the popular crowd and I was just a loner. We never fought or had a falling out and we would talk occasionally but very briefly. Like saying hi to each other at our lockers. I moved across town when I was 13 and by high school, we had completely grown apart.

[lookashiny]

Yeah, it sucks when you're a loner and your best friend becomes part of the popular crowd. I was one of the quiet, awkward weirdos at school.

[xans]

I moved around a lot. New school every two or three years, shifting back and forth between New Zealand and the U.S. a couple times. In the days before Internet and social media, that was a killer for most my friendships. Hell, even with FB, many of those later high school friendships, we haven't spoken in ages, just occasionally 'like' each other's posts. There's only one friend from childhood that I've maintained a friendship with for over 20 years now, despite moves, because we learned how to go months without talking without feeling guilty that we lead fairly separate lives.

[lookashiny]

The only friend I've maintained since I was a kid is the same as yours. We talk occasionally online and see each other a few times a year and that's enough for us.