Are Friendships Forever?

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The topic of conversation at my recent Entrepreneurs’ Organization forum group was on friendship. We all had an opportunity to share our experiences about a time in our lives when we lost friends for whatever reason.

My first reaction was about a time when I was hurt by a few of my friends who were very close and dear to me and we had a falling out and that was that…

Another negative experience I shared was a time when my husband and I were very close with another couple and then that couple split up. It was very painful because the woman went back to her home in England and that was the last time I saw her.

I went home after the forum meeting concluded and was quiet upset. It stirred up so many negative feelings about past relationships. But that night, I started to think…. I did have a positive experience that came out of a negative one!

When I was a young girl, I had a best friend. We did everything together. We bought our first lipstick and mascara, we went to the skating ring to meet boys and we went to parties together. When we were 14, for some reason, my friend’s mother told her that I was a bad influence and forbid her to see me.

For awhile, we saw each other anyway. She would sneak out of her house and I would sneak out of mine so that we could talk about boys, parents and clothes! Then one day, it just got to be too hard so we went our separate ways.

A few years went by and we both graduated High School. She went to a school in the city and so did I. She lived in the city and so did I. We ended up bumping into each other at the St. Marks Bar & Grille, which was across the street from my East Village apartment.

It was great to reconnect with her but again, we ended up going our separate ways. A few years after that, I graduated College and I ran into her on the street. She mentioned that she was married and had a baby. I was so surprised because at that time I couldn’t even think about having a child.

We ran into each other a few years later when she was leaving her first husband. We got together several times but then parted again for no known reason other than we both got involved in our own lives.

Several years later, we bumped into each other and I found out that she got remarried had a baby and was happily living outside of the city. It was great to reconnect and I found that we were destined to keep running into each other. Although we stopped talking for several years, we met up again on Facebook.

This is a friendship that no matter what happens with time, we will always be there for each other. When we talk it’s like we never parted ways. When we laughed it was like we were laughing for the first time when were talking about boys.

Do you have a similar experience that you would like to share?