Why high school friendships are so special
Even if you haven't seen each other for 20 years, you can just step back into the past.
“What are we going to wear?” Friend M and I haven't spoken in thirty years, but we are back in full swing with our messaging. The reason? The reunion of our high school. I laugh out loud at her next message: “I think just a double polo shirt and my college scarf.” I consider booking a hotel (this hotel for example) but I decide to accept M's offer to stay with her. Just like back then. And just like it was back then. From her house, exactly her parents’ house, to chatting until midnight about everything we heard and saw that evening, to having a coffee in the morning feeling a bit hungover and being waved off until I was around the corner. The reunion itself was exactly the same. It felt like putting on an old coat as I immediately slipped back into ‘then’ with my friends. Within five minutes, I had already cried twice. From crying and from laughing. When friend J asked me at the end of the evening if we could switch shoes for a moment because hers hurt so much, I realized again how deeply rooted such an old friendship is. As I drove home, one message after another popped in with photos and stories. High school friendships are indestructible and deep, and that's why.
– You've stayed over at each other's places a hundred times
With ‘adult’ friends, that doesn't happen. Maybe you've gone on vacation together, but staying over every week, we don't do that anymore.
– You know each other's parents, brothers, and sisters
You know how someone has been shaped, what has affected and made them. With friendships that formed later in life, you gradually find that out.
– You met each other during a particularly formative time
You told each other about the first kiss, the first crush, the first heartbreak. You know everything about each other.
– You can better tolerate and name each other's quirks
I already had such a great laugh about friend M who was secretly snacking from the cake buffet and friend B who really let the most incorrect joke roll off her proper tongue.
– You genuinely wish each other the best because you care about the other (of course, that's true for all your friends).
– It's nice to have people around you who know you in all facets.
That next reunion really needs to come sooner, girls. I can't wait another twenty years.
