Friendship

Recently I have found myself reflecting on why some friendships have such strong ties, ties that time and distance only make stronger. I was reunited with several of my high school classmates this past summer at our 25^th class reunion. As we began to interact with each other on Facebook prior to the reunion I could feel the bond we share pulling me closer to each of them. The common thread of growing up in our small hometown seems insignificant to most people who hear about our reunion and the renewed friendships that have come from it. Almost everyone that discovers we have had two more "reunions" in the six months following the first, are shocked.

I see a confused expression come across the faces of those I have told about the bond I share with my classmates. As I experienced this same reaction time after time I began to try and figure out what makes us different. What is it that sets us apart? It isn't the community that we come from because several of us married people from that same community. There are at least three different graduating classes represented by our spouses and they do not share the same kind of bond with the people from their graduating class. My husband's class has had two reunions over the past 28 years. We attended his 10^th reunion and he was not interested when the second one came around. My class on the other hand celebrated on the 5^th, 10^th, 20^th, and 25^th years following our graduation. We have yet to stop celebrating the 25^th anniversary even as we move closer to 26 years separating our common experiences.

It is as if time has stood still when we are together. Our bond has really become stronger than it was when we were hanging out every day in the halls of CHS. We have been apart far longer than we were ever together but that doesn't matter. Our friendships are strong. Our commitment to each other has begun to grow in a way that even we do not understand. We have many more differences than we have similarities but somehow that one common thread holding us together is stronger than all the others combined. So, as we begin to add more threads to the tapestry of our lives I find myself excited to discover the beautiful creation that is being fashioned.