I was thinking today about the guys I grew up hanging out with. When I was in elementary and Jr. High school I spent most of my free time outside in the neighborhood hanging out with the other guys that lived on my street. There was myself and 7 other guys that basically hung out everyday after school. Our crazy variety of activities included the following: football, baseball, ball tag, gastopo (not sure how that's spelled but it implies the german people who arrested jewish people), anything you could possibly do with bikes, playing war in the forest, building forts, video games, computer games, board games, role playing games, shooting bee bee guns, trying to make money however we could, trading baseball cards, plum wars, water wars, making rope swings, river running, wrestling, fighting, joking together, pondering life's mysteries, cutting each others hair, going to movies, paintball, padded sword fighting, sleeping over, camping outside, disc races (you'll have to ask me for an explanation), playing sardines, hiking and most importantly getting in trouble at each others houses. I'm sure we did other things too but those memories have unfortunately faded. What is interesting is that of those 7 guys I really only have contact with one of them now. Two of them I have a general idea of what they are up to but the rest of them I have absolutely no clue where they are or what they're doing. What's weird is that there was never any sort of falling out, and no one really moved away. In high school some guys just stopped coming around to hang out, the group dwindled to 3 of us with an occassional 4th and once I finally left for college I really only talked to one of the guys.
I take solace in the fact that I have developed some new friendships that I really enjoy and intend to do everything in my power to maintain regardless of things like distance between us. But it is really interesting how sometimes we will just let things that were such a huge part of our life fade without ever noticing until they are long gone.
2 hours ago
5 comments:
Hey, if you don't have any friends, I'll be one. I live right down the street. You can count on me. :)
After telling Brittany about the comment above, she said that I am gay. I thought it was funny, but if nobody else finds it comical I do have the power to delete it. Is it funny or gay?
funny
I just realized I posted without signing my name!
Amy (formerly known as Anonymous)
I remember all those things - and I explained the disc races to Mike (who thought it sounded like fun!). I loved reading this! I admire you for regarding your friendships so highly. I think it is common to have different friends for different phases of our lives. It is nice that you can hold on to all those memories of the "neighborhood guys" - but as you left for college you had to continue on in life with friends who served your new needs. Being away from your family, being a newlywed, finding your way through graduate school and determining your career.
I wanted to make fun of you for having a blog - but I am enjoying it too much!
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