What is the longest friendship you've kept, and why?

I have friendships that go back 40 years. When we get to see each other it is as if no time has passed.

Eight years and counting. The people I met here are wonderful.

I cut all ties when I moved out of Florida when I was turning thirteen.
I have absolutely no need to speak to anyone from there.

The only person that I consider to be a true friend is my best friend from childhood. We met in 2nd grade and even though she lives in Vegas and I in Illinois, we still talk to one another and consider each other best friends. We have been friends for 30 years now.

30 years!?! Has it been that long!?! I’ve got to call her now!

My best friend and I have been friends for almost 8 years, I think. She was my maid-of-honor. I rarely see her, but whenever we do see each other, it’s like no time has even passed. She and I just click. We trust each other, confide everything, can call the other whenever…
I’m not a great friend, I’ll admit that. I am pretty flaky and tend to get absorbed in my own life. She understands this. She is also the same way. That’s why our friendship works so well.

I have a friend who lives 7 miles from me. We met when we were about 10–12 years old. We pretty much grew up together. We were always at each others’ house. We still see each other a lot & we go to lunch & shopping all the time. She’s still as screwy & funny as she ever was.

@casheroo That’s how my best friend and I are. She lives in Oregon, I live in Texas, and we see each other once a year, but it’s like we just saw each other yesterday. We just pick right back up where we left off. Sure we talk fairly often, but we’ve gone a couple months without talking before. It’s nice to know that someone understands you and that life gets hectic and is still there to be your friend!

My two longest relationships are with my best friends Katie and Nastasha. I met Katie in 3rd grade and Nastasha in 6th. Katie and I never went to the same school we lived by eachother we go to colleges hours away. Nastasha actually moved to Pittsburgh in 7th grade, goes to college hours away. The one thing that keeps the those relationships alive is that we are friends without reservations. We understand that we are busy people, we talk when we can, and we do it’s as if months haven’t past. We pick up right where we left off.

I have found that if you don’t see each other fairly regularly, the friendship gradually peters out. Two years ago, I would have said my longest friendship lasted a little more than thirty years. Now, I’m not sure any more. If you contact each other once a year, or less, are you still friends? In this time of ubiquitous internet, facebook and email, free phone plans, and easy travel?

@daloon I think Facebook and the like is what has helped keep some of my long time friendships alive. My best girls live hours and hours away from me, but with social networking and text messaging it’s easy to just pop in and say hello or see how life is going through pictures and such even if you can’t physically be together. And really, I think if you’re friends, you’re friends no matter what (unless something tragic happens to end the friendship). But maybe I’m naive and/or too optimistic.

I have friends I’ve known for 35 years—mostly met in various work situations. I deeply value old friendships.

My mother, who is 89, has friends she has known since kindergarten, which I think is awesome.. But she lived and went to school in the same district throughout her childhood. We moved around a lot.

My longest bff and I were in Kindergarten together, in 1971—so that’s 38 years! My next longest bff was in 1st grade with bff #1 and I, so I’ve known him 39 years (the two of them met at the age of 3, so they’ve know each other nearly 40 years). My next longest bff and I met in 1982, so that’s 27 years. These people were not always bffs to me. In fact, bff #2 and I didn’t realize how much we had in common until after we’d graduated High School!

These people are more like family to me than my actual biological relatives. They are the only people I know who love me unconditionally (including my biological relatives, who are very dysfunctional). I may not speak to them for months at a time, but when we do get in touch again, we pick up right where we left off. There’s no judging and no holding grudges. And I know that if I ever needed them, they’d do anything they could to help me, and vice-versa.

I met my best friend in the whole world when I was 7 and he asked me to come to his house for lunch. That was thirteen years ago. Sometimes we don;t speak for a very long time and sometimes we have huge fights. How do I know we’re still friends? Because we still tolerate each other after all these years. :)

At 45, I have friends that I’ve known for 40 years; friends from school days, college & work. I value & maintain my friendships carefully. My friends are varied & unique and beyond amazing. A deal breaker for a friendship? I would have said there wasn’t one, until a dear friend and I parted ways over the dissolution of her marriage. I spoke frankly to her about her ownership of the disaster, she wasn’t in a mental place to want to hear it. In spite of apologies, we never found a way to meet in the middle and went our separate ways. I miss her terribly.

I met my best friend 17 years ago when we both worked at the same video store, but we didn’t start hanging out with mutual friends until a 2–3 years later.

Since I moved away from my childhood hometown when I was 15, I missed out on some critical bonding with the people I’ve known since I was 5 or 6 and even though we still see each other every so many years it would be hard to classify our relationship as a true friendship.

As far as why I have remained friends with this guys, sometimes it would be tough to say and our relationship hasn’t always been peachy. But I think the biggest thing is that we both are understanding of the fact that people have faults and can see past those when other people sometimes can’t.

Beyond that, we do share a lot of the same interests so it makes for easy conversation. He was there for me when I moved to NYC and had no job and no place to live and I was there for him in similar circumstances.

I have known my best friend since we were born. 25 years and still going. Why are we still friends? Well, I could say, “oh we are inseparable, blah, blah, etc…” but truthfully, we stayed friends because if we didn’t we wouldn’t have any friends.
I have three friends, he is one of them.

I have a couple of friends I’ve known since kindergarten. We’re not that close anymore, but we’re still friends. My best friend is the guy who was sitting in front of me at high school, almost 20 years ago. In this time he served a term as my manager and business partner, and I was the best man at his first wedding (I guess I didn’t do that well).

The reason we’ve been friends is that he’s always been honest and loyal and simply likes me very much, and on my side I’m always dependable and forgiving (not that he’s done anything to be forgiven, but I’m generally a person that never keeps a grudge).

I’ve been friends with my bestfriend since I was about 4. MAYBE younger. She was my next door neighbor at that time, and two years older than me. We did everything together, road bikes, played games, got poison ivy ALL over our bodies. Even when I moved we never lost touch and we still call eachother like, everyday. I love her like a sister.

I met one of my best friends in 7th grade and we’ve now been close for 25 years. Even though we’re on separate coasts now, the distance between us makes no difference. She’s been through almost everything in my life with me -which means a degree of insane circumstances you can’t imagine. I’m certain we’ll be best friends for the rest of our lives. There’s a lot of unconditional love, respect and understanding that goes into making a friendship like this last, and strong communication skills also make a huge difference. Sure, we have had out share of major conflicts but there’s something that’s unbreakable about us.

I am in touch with a childhood friend from 58 years ago but it has devolved into more of an acquaintanceship. I have Christmas card friends of 45 years. My stepmother has been my true friend for 40 years. My circle of friends have mostly been around for 15–20 years.

Do you think FaceBook friends will last that long?

27 years. My best bud. Because we are more alike than anyone I know including my twin brother. He and I can just be.

I turned 25 last week and I need the fingers of more than one hand to tick off the number of people I’ve been friends with for more than 20 years. I just don’t lose friends easily. Even when I want to. Blessing and curse, all wrapped up in one, really.

Other than my brother, who’s been my best friend for 24 years, (since he was born) I’ve had friends for 12 years now. Some of them are great, others less so, but there are still about 10 of them in my life.

Hmm…my longest friend is probably 12 years. We were not always best of friends, but over the years our friendship has evolved. I probably have about 6 close girlfriends, 3 of which I know will be in my life forever, which may not seem like a lot, but means more than anything to me, especially since growing up I didn’t have many great friends.

One of them is a traveler, so we often meet in faraway places and divulge everything to one another. We are a lot alike because we enjoy all of the same music, literature, art, which makes us able to hang out with one another for months straight without being weird. My other two friends are always there for me and I love them dearly and I adore certain parts of their personalities, but we are not necessarily a lot alike.

I have always found it hard to keep friendships with guys. I have a boyfriend of 4 years now, and we are really like best friends. I feel the same way about him, we like all the same stuff, and can hang out constantly without being annoyed. But a relationship isn’t exactly a best friend.

For a long time I was still friends with my best friend from kindergarten. We were friends for 18 years. Nothing happened between us, but we live in the same city and never talk. I erased her phone number because she never calls me back. Deep in my heart I really miss her, and I hope that things change and we can become friends again in the future when things are better for her.

I’ve had good friends that have just pleasantly drifted away, and perhaps we keep in touch once a year, but other than that we don’t really talk. I have had two falling outs in my lifetime, both because the other person was too controlling and our relationship got out of hand. I used to be really shy and easygoing, so I felt like people would take advantage of this part of me. I can’t really blame the other person, since you create your own reality and I let them take advantage of me in the first place. It is a lesson to be learned. I don’t do that anymore.

But I do also like making new friends! New friends are fun, and I hope to keep making them too…

25 years and 6 months and still going.That’s my age and my friend is my Dad.He’s the best.

@engineeristerminatorisWOLV: Normally I get annoyed when a new user awakens a very old thread but that answer was just so lovely!

@KatawaGrey : I just couldn’t help myself seeing the question.Thanks for the kind words.He is just awesome and I’d consider byself prized if i have a 10th of his talent.

@KatawaGrey: Really? I get a kick out of seeing older questions resurface… especially rather than having them asked over again!

@hearkat: Usually it’s new users who haven’t gotten the hang of fluther yet and make really bad or confusing contributions. @engineeristerminatorisWOLV answer is wonderful though and I quite enjoyed it. :)