I too have a serious case of "Look at all the names here that I recognize, yet I have no idea who these people are". Maybe partly due to my failing memory in my old age, partly due to not having been that close to begin with. That's OK. Think of all the people you grew up with, perhaps spent 5 days a week with in school from the age of 6 to 18. Then you lose touch with them for a few years and meet up again and they're strangers to you. It's no surprise that it happens so easily with people on a message board. People change fast.

But we all have a shared history of being EoFFers. That's one more thing than we all have in common with all of the other strangers in the world. It can be a springboard to form new relationships now, for anyone who wants one. Those new relationships might last, or not, but that's OK too.

Enjoy the brief time you have with people while you have it. Move on if it's time to move on. What else is there? It can still be meaningful even if it's only temporary.

(The fact that everyone seems to have turned out so well after all this time is probably because of selection bias. The people who didn't turn out well aren't going to post here, because they don't have internet, or they're passed out in a ditch somewhere or in prison or dead.)