My longest surviving friend has been my friend for 4 years

[Peegee]

And I think for most of one year I got mad at her and changed accounts in msn and blocked her on the other. This friend is EoFF's very own Bonnie.

It's true. I can't and typically don't keep friends for very long. I don't seriously expect to stay Chemical/Ashley's roommate for the 4 years she asked me to commit (it could happen! just historically unprecedented), because by then she'd be my second longest, still current friend of 5 years (and Bonnie would by then be my friend for almost a decade, if she actually lasts that long.

Honorable mentions include my roommates for 2.5 years who I don't keep in contact with, and people from high school, who don't really count because I never kept in touch with them, and saying 'hi' to the same person every so often doesn't count as friends.

My parents are in their 50's and 60's and have friends that they met in grade school. I'm like...WHAT how is that even possible and my head explodes, and goo comes flying everywhere. I think I have spiderman beat for most disgusting super power (spider goo is gross...eww).

Online friends do not count, because if they do I have a 9 year long friend from Texas that rarely talks to me, but we're on msn.

Honorable mentions include my ex girlfriend's cousin who is waay too young for me to be friends with, but whatever, since we don't talk anyway, my friends from IBM who have left IBM and we keep in touch every few months instead of every month, and a girl from my karate class who asked me to go to her high school prom, who doesn't respond to my '*poke*' openers to catch up on old times. I'd add her on facebook but we'd just shoot the smurf and stop talking. That typically ends up to be the case with me and my friends.

Do you have long lasting friendships with people? How the heck do you do it? I want some of your gypsy magicks.

[Dolentrean]

I have been friends with by best friend for 7 years, and friends with others for 8-10 year. Its easy, I care about them.

[scrumpleberry]

Jesus, I don't know. I don't think about how long I've been friends with people for. Sometimes habits you didn't care about before start to annoy you, and you just need to steer clear of them for a while and hang out with some different people. lol, analogies. But it's true, it helps me if I feel that a friend is pissing me off. I can't decide on my oldest friend, because I rarely speak to one of them any more, the other I wasn't friends with at all for a stretch of a few years, and the others I just haven't been friends with for that long. More than 5 years isn't really a challenge for me though.

[rubah]

I've been friends with tish and amy for about a decade now. We don't always see each other a lot or talk a lot, but it's kinda a quiet understood thing. I guess they're pretty close to just being family, but there's some people in my family that I would feel awkward with hanging out just out of the blue, but not these two.

I've been friends with megan and hannah for about five years, but I don't know how much we're very good friends still; I haven't seen them in a way that I feel bad about, and I feel that maybe they're changing away, whereas tisha and amy are eternal somehow.

[Blue Harvest]

I'll use my best friends as an example here. The first I've known for *thinks* 7 or 8 years now. We still talk (almost) every day, despite the fact that he moved 150 miles down south two years ago (bastard).

The second I've known forever. One of my earliest memories is of her. We don't talk that much anymore unfortunately (she moved away too and she's way busy nowadays) but we still keep in contact.

So to sum up, it's easy for me to stay friends with people. I'll probably still be friends with most of you in about 5 years :)

[Zeldy]

I've known some of my friends for 11 years now, nearly all my life xD and I stayed with the same group of friends all through high school. I'm comfortable around people I know, so I can be myself, whereas with new people I'm really shy and I have to make an effort to try and be myself, I'm always so paranoid that they don't like me or whatever. I hate making new friends.

[Balzac]

I've known my friend Dan for 24 years, we hang out nearlly every weekend. And my best fucking friend in the world Leanne, I've known for around 6 years now. :D

[XxSephirothxX]

One of my roommates I've known since I was 4. So that's 16 years, now.

[Miriel]

My best friend has been in my life for 17 years. Even after graduating high school and moving 100+ miles away from each other, we're still the closest of friends. I talk to her on the phone nearly everyday and we make it a point to see each other as often as we can.

I love her like a sister, and I honestly believe that we're going to be a part of each other's lives for a really long time.

Most of my other really close friends come from high school. Which would mean that they've been in my life for 8 years now. Damn.

But yes. I don't talk to some of my other friends as often as I do with my bestest friend, but we still talk a few times a month, and get together whenever everyone is in town. In fact, I'm meeting up with a bunch of my high school friends tomorrow to celebrate my birthday.

I had a friend from middle school who I was really close to for awhile. But then she moved to another town and we lost touch for a bit. I met up with her again a few months ago after she moved back into town upon graduating from University. And it's like time hasn't affected our relationship at all. She still makes me laugh like crazy, and we're talking on a regular basis these days. :)

It's easy for me to lose touch with people, because I can be lazy. But once I get back into touch with people, it's as easy and natural as though we never lost touch in the first place.

[Vermachtnis]

I've been best friends with my best friend for about eight years. Met in the 6th grade.

[Kirobaito]

I have friends with whom I was in kindergarten. So that's 15 years. It's not that hard... we were in the same classes every year up until we graduated high school. They all go to different schools now, but we do things together during breaks.

[Sarc the Swordsman]

I didn't really keep in touch with anyone from high school, since none of them were worth knowing to be honest, too immature even after they finished school. Harsh, but true. However, my longest lasting friendship is three years - I've kept in touch, and meet up with a large group of friends from college almost every week.

I don't really have a secret to keeping in touch, we're just very committed and always make room for plans to meet up, despite work/studying.

[Muhyo]

Mine is... 6-7 years. Yep. My best friend. We used to hate eachother.

[Madame Adequate]

I've known my best friend for about eight years now. We tight, yo. I have several other good friends I've known for around four or five years. But I only make an effort for people I care about. Friends of convenience (i.e. we go to the same college) are likely to get dropped like a sack of bricks.

[Leeza]

I have friends from high school that I don't talk to for years at a time, but whenever we do get together we're still good. Maybe if we saw each other more often we'd see how much we differ now and maybe we wouldn't be as good. I guess I'll never know. I really don't make friends easily. My best friend I have known for about 18 years now. We just clicked and I can see being friends with her even if one of us moves away.

[Raistlin]

I am much like peegee. I had friends in high school that I had known since I was 9, but once I moved to college we barely talk. I just don't even think to put in the effort to keep in contact with most people.

Not counting online friends, my longest lasting current friend is at about three years now. Based on precedent, we probably won't talk much after college is over.

I don't make close friends very easily anymore. I tend to like people less the more I am around them. So I do not know how people do it either, pg.

[Breine]

I've had some of my longest lasting friends since I was in day care. I live in a small town so everyone practically knows everyone, and so keeping in contact with those I went to elementary school with isn't really that difficult since almost all of us still live in the same town. It'll change over the next couple of years, though, since both all of my friends from my childhood and from High School and stuff will move away from home to study in either one of the three biggest cities of Denmark.. So we'll be scattered to all of the winds. A couple of my friends are even moving to another country (Germany.. I live an hour away from the border, but still).

Keeping contact probably won't be hard, though, since many are moving to the same city as me, or have already moved there, and besides Denmark is not that big of a country. If you want to get from one end of the country to another it'll mostly take you three hours.. so no biggie, really.

[Randgris]

I haven't had contact with my friends for a few years now. Its my fault. I got lazy. I don't even know where they are and what they are doing.

[Caraliz]

my longest friend i left behind in illinois, we were friends for a year and still going strong though we don't really talk much anymore. we weren't very close. we hung out every single day almost but we weren't close in the sense that she cared about me; i hesitate to say any of my friends have genuinely cared.

online i have the same problem 'cos either don't keep in touch or there's drama and we have a falling out.

bert's been my best friend for 8-9 months now and my boyfriend for about 6. i hope we can keep it going, as it is my longest relationship to date.

[Vikeve]

Well, I'm only fifteen so it's not hard for me to but I've kept my best friend as my best friend since pre-k! I've kept most of my friendships with people and actually anyone I ended up loosing contact with when I was young or any friend who I began to hate during middle school I have become friends with again at the Highschool which I find funny.

[Lawr]

I've known my best friend since I was 5. So that's 10 years.

[Jess]

There is this one girl I met the day I started school after moving to Essex from Newcastle at the age of 6. We're still friends now, at the ages of 18. We've been friends for 12 years and now my family and I are moving back to Newcastle when our house sells. She is even thinking about coming to live up there with me in two years time after she finishes some Law qualification she's doing - but whether or not that happens, we'll remain friends, with her coming to visit and me coming back here to visit her.

Other long friendships I have are around 7-8 years. :jess:

[Momiji]

The longest was 8 years.... But she changed and became a bully to me. *cries*
But same here, I'm not very good at keeping friendship or contact, whenever I try, they don't seem to care. :cry: So I'd think, what's the point?


Same here. My best friend for almost 16 years turned on me recently and refuses to talk to me because I'm not a lame-ass conformist like he is. Many of my other friendships locally have turned sour as well. My best friend locally would have to be my cousin, but I only see him maybe once a month because he's too busy with his other friends.

I like my e-pals more anyway.

[fire_of_avalon]

I've known the three most important women in my life for 18, 15 and 12 years respectively. Our relationships are similar to what Miriel spoke of; we don't really talk a bunch, but when we do it's always natural and easy.

[XCGriever]

I met my longest running friend in kindergarten when I was 5, so 15 years for her but for the past 5 years, I've been hanging out with her little brother more. I still go to her house and see her and her son every weekend though (I'm Uncle Pat!:D). BTW, my longest running relationship is 5 days, so friends are a lot more tolerant than better halves (Apparently...).

[Bunny]

My longest surviving friendship is going on 6 years. We started out as internet friends and about 5-6 months into our friendship we met up for the first time. A few months after that, I lived with him for a year or so and we have kept in close contact ever since. So we aren't necessarily "internet" friends anymore, just long distance. Although it seems to be ending as we get further and further apart.

The next longest friendship I have is around 3 years, also an internet beginning and now I live in the same town as him and consider him my "best" friend.

Aside from those two particular people, I have never had a friend for more than a year.

[theundeadhero]

I've known my best friend for 12 years, another friend for 17 years, and my longest friend for my whole life.

[Lone Wolf Leonhart]

Online friends do not count


Then I don't have any friends.

However, I do plan on meeting the very few people on the internetz I consider friends. And that's no more than 2 or 3 people I've known since at the latest, 2005.

[Shlup]

I have very few friends who've been my friend for only four years. My longest-running friendship is 26-years and counting. That's right, and I'm only 25. She's 10 months older than me and she used to lay on my mom's stomach and I'd kick her. She lives half the country away right now, but we still have an hour-long conversation ever couple of weeks.

[rubah]

frankly, that's awesome shlup

[Cloudane]

Hmmm you just spend time with them, that's how I keep mine anyway. Of course, they should be worth your time. That way you only keep good friends and easily detect the ones who only talk to you when they want something.

Funny enough I spend more time talking to my RL friends online than offline though!

My first attempt at a "Best friend" was like 21 years ago when I started school and stayed that way for a while but I also made another a few years later... about 17 years ago... and I relabelled them as "Joint best friends".

Remained close friends with them both through most of school, we were pretty much inseparable. Then things changed a bit with 6th form, the first studied different things and hung around different people and we kind of drifted apart somehow. It's weird looking back, one minute we were inseparable and the next we finished school and basically never saw each other again except once or twice a year by coincidence when the best we could manage was "Hi, how are you doing" as we no longer had anything in common.

Since then by coincidence I ended up working for the same company for a year, then he left. But the relationship had completely changed from 'friends' to 'colleagues who get on'. We've not been in touch since he left - started out best buddies but ended up leading completely different lives in the end.

Somewhere around this time the second one varied between "losing touch a bit", "fallen out" and "best friends", and I also made a third. No.3 and I had the same intellectual interests and went to all the same classes and stuck with each other all the time like the best of buddies.

Then the end of 6th form came, when No.3 moved to another part of the country and with the exception of one town event when he returned with fiance in tow and managed to say hi, he never spoke to me (or anyone else from up here) ever again and completely ignored all attempts to get in touch.

Throughout all this the one consistency (even though we had ups and downs at one point) was no.2, making it pretty clear that he was my true best mate. 17 years or so and still going strong :D Truth be told we don't hang out together much these days... he's always away attending events at our near-ish city, and whilst we used to hang around at his house on a Saturday night, I tend to be thirsting for ale a bit earlier and end up going straight into town - though we do meet up there.

I really should make more of an effort really, or we'll end up drifting apart (see, that's how it happens!). It's not like I'm uninvited to the city do's (though he's given up asking), it's just that I usually find some 'difficulty' or other that makes me say no... I have some pretty strong Avoidant Personality traits. The house thing is just me being selfish and a rubbish one-way friend - ought to make an effort.

As for online, I've found that online friendships can be perfectly real but they come and go. There are only so many times you can say "Hi, how are you today / how was your day" before the questions and the responses get old, and without actually meeting and doing stuff together there's not much to talk about and not much reason to talk to them other than to try and keep in touch - often pointless, as you're just prolonging the repeats of those awkward "Hi. How are you. Cool." moments.

Sometimes you get a good online friendship as you do things together in online worlds like Warcraft or SL or whatever, but then you move on to some other world.

I've also found that with my RL friends online (there's a bunch of us who have somehow ended up like a 'gang' and run a messageboard together etc) if they don't meet up once in a while to be reminded of what each other are really like, they tend to get bitchy and start kicking off with arguments and amateur dramatics. It's fascinating how the internet does that. Cars, too. As soon as people are 'hidden' from each other they act like cave men - but meet up again and everyone is buddies again.

A true long-lasting friendship usually takes regular meet-ups and a decent amount of effort, IMO.

Sorry that ended up a bit long... bored during lunch hour :p