Reflections on: Old Friends Are Like Gold

I’ve been spending the holidays in my hometown of Lowell, MA, and have spent much of the last couple weeks catching up with my dear childhood friends here. In particular, here is one group of friends I have known since I was 5 years old:

Friends since Kindergarten at Ste Jeanne d’Arc School (I’m in the pink sweater)

Whenever I am back home, it has me particularly thinking about the value of these longer-term friendships. These friends are like living scrapbooks–memories of primary school and birthday parties–events that only this group of people would deeply know about. And although we only see each other a couple times a year, it is one of the events I look forward to the most.

Making new friends is a lifelong journey, and an ever important one. Some of my dear friends I have met while in the most unexpected places: a campus bus stop (hi, Laura), a Turismo van in Guatemala (Parisa!), in a hostel in Iceland (Geraldine), and other friendships I am grateful for that have transpired and have been sustained over the years.

And I have been doing a lot of thinking about how close friends are really like family: these special people we let into our hearts, and share innermost parts of our lives with. And for the group that is pictured above, I very much think of them as family–and I know whenever we get together it’s simultaneously going back in time, and enjoying each other’s company in the present.

So, in short: it is incredibly important to me to have these amazing friendships from way back when–in addition to looking for those opportunities to make new friends. As I mentioned in a previous post, What If Everyone You Saw Was Really Within 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, you just never know who you’re going to meet–and how they will impact your life–all for the better.

What do you think: are old friends really like gold? Is there really a difference between old/new friends?

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