How long have you known your oldest friend?

I met my best friend in second grade. That was 33 years ago for me. We have almost 2000 miles between us, but we don’t let that come between our friendship. We keep in touch on the phone quite a bit.

Keeping friends is different for everyone. Some people still have close friendships from childhood, some don’t have any at all. Others develop friendships in college or once they get in the workforce. It really just depends on the connections you have with others and if you are willing to work at keeping the relationship.

42 years ago

55 years! She’s the baby, she has only known me for about 53. I lived in Ontario, she in Michigan but she came to her grandparents cottage just down the hill from us to spend each summer with them. We had a blast and though we lost track of each other for a few years in our twenties, we caught up again gloriously through an aunt of hers I found on line. She lives in California City these days and I in western Canada but we write and delight in each other’s trek through time.

My next closest friend I have known since High School in the 1960’s. Another great resilient friend. I have received cards and notes from each of them over the past week and it sure is warming to know there are people with whom we’ve shared so much of the journey!

Wow @smilingheart1 , @DrBill and @jonsblond ! I hope I’ll still be in touch with my best friend for as long as you guys have been with your friends. That really gives me hope.

30 years and she is still one of my dearest friends even though we live 1000km apart.

46 years, since 5th grade. Not all that close, we saw each other occasionally over the years but are closer now with Facebook.

Some high school friends last forever and I think it’s wonderful. I never had that kind of friend in high school or college. But I have friends I’ve been friends with over 40 years. So you will find out what kind of friends you had in high school. You’ll find that some were friends just because you shared the fun of high school, and that’s okay. Friends who really bonded with you will be around longer. How much longer? Depends on how your lives go.

I have known my first and best friend since the day I was born (she was my next-door neighbor, and our mothers were/are best friends). We have managed to remain best friends for seventeen years, even though she is two years older than me, and we plan to be for a very long time. :)

I have a friend from high school whom I’ve known since 1965, which would make her a friend for 47 years. Wow!

Since university, about 12 years ago. All my other friends from high school, junior high, and elementary have all gone their separate ways.

I met my best and oldest friend in first grade.

High school mattered very little to me after graduation. I went to the same university as several of my classmates, and I always found it amusing when people who wouldn’t speak to me in high school would desperately try to talk to me in college. For them, college was too different. The foreignness of the experience made them feel isolated, so any familiar face was like an oasis in the desert. For me, it was exactly the change for which I was looking. I stayed close to the people I actually liked, and I didn’t waste another glance on the rest.

My oldest friend is someone I started school with at age 3—we’ve been in and out of touch throughout our lives but are not that close.

My oldest close friend is someone I started college with 23 years ago. We’ve been right by each other through all kinds of crap and fun—

About 15 years back, when I was in my early 20’s.

12 years now.

We became friends when we were 3, so 16 years. <3

My best friend (or I should clarify: one of my two best friends) I have known since I was about 3 and she was about 5. That would be over 40 years, at this point. She lived near my grandparents, and I used to spend a lot of time at my grandparents house when I was 3. As a result, her whole family and my whole family became friends, and are all friends to this day. She and I were not as close in high school, as we both ran with different crowds, but then when she was married we got closer again.

35 years

I’ve known others longer but I consider my best friend the longest because we’ve been in each other’s lives, year in and year out, consistently now for 25+ years. We met in college, he was my first real date and eventual business partner.

26 years. I have two close friends that I met at the same time, one is my partner, the other probably would have been if I didn’t pick the one I did.

21 Years. She was my first friend when I started school at 4 years old and we still keep in touch now even though we live quite far apart. I am still in contact with some school friends on Facebook and my best friend and I went to school together for 7 years.