...With A Little Help From My Friends

Think back to elementary school. What do you remember? Playing with friends on the playground, of course! Think back to when you were a bit older in high school. What do you remember? Riding around with friends, of course! College? Navigating the new murky waters of the adult world with friends, of course!

School is a ready-made place for friends. You bond together in grades K-12 because you're forced to be at one place for seven hours a day, so you might as well make the best of it. The transition from high school to college can be difficult because you step into an entirely new world, and the friendships you've spent your entire life building are infringed upon. You still retain some of the old friends, but you make new friends as well. Then, these new people become some of your closest friends.

Then, you leave college and you have to do the friend thing all over again. There are so many roads people take at this point. For me, I moved to DC, which was like College Part Two. Many people were my age and new to DC, so it wasn't too difficult to meet people. Luckily, I had a great friend from when I interned there the summer before, so the transition wasn't nearly as difficult as it could've been.

I also have many friends that moved to the same town after college, making their social life ready-made. But what about those of us that take the plunge and move off somewhere? What do we do?

After getting married about 11 months ago, Bert and I moved to a place where we didn't know a soul. We certainly have enjoyed our time together, but both started missing some of the friendships we'd left behind. Slowly we started meeting people. Of all things, our closest friends here are moving to DC.

This has me thinking: why do adults still have a deep need for friendship?

Here are some of my answers:

• Who do you marry? Your best friend! The closest friend of your life becomes your family. This certainly shows the power and importance of friendship.
• People are social creatures. We like to be around other people. People have a need for inclusion, and friendship provides this. This is why I think we have inside jokes with our friends. It's a secret code between friends, and bonds them for life.
• Friends and family don't have the same emotional attachment to us. You can do something that would be devestating in your parent's eyes, but friends won't feel this level of emotion about what you've done. They don't have to practice tough love. They can just be there for you.
• People like to be around others in similar situations. Young married couples like to be around other young married couples because they relate to each other so well. We like to be around people in similar phases of life because our interests are compatible.
• We choose our friends. You are born into a family, but you pick all your friends.

Friends are present in every stage of our life, serving different purposes. From the friend we used to play hopscotch with on the playground...to the friend who handed us tissues after we were rejected by a crush... to the friend that sent a "congratulations on your new job card," friends really are something special. I don't know any girl that would ever outgrow enjoying chatting on the phone with an old friend about their college days or talking to a new friend about meeting downtown for lunch. And I don't know any guy that wouldn't like to meet his childhood best friend for a beer to talk about everything "back home" or go play golf with a new friend.

So, here's to you, friends old and new. Here's to you.