Beyond Babedom

We're (way) over 40. Deal with it.

You’ve Got a Friend

Yes; I watch Glee. And I’m not ashamed. Deal with it. It makes me think of when I was in high school and how important my friends were back then. Not just important; they were the MOST important thing to me. How many of us still have those kind of intense, symbiotic relationships?

Our friendships were so intense back then that many of us were accused of being gay. Which may be why the guys didn’t form those kind of relationships. Like today, a lot of guys were terrified of being accused of being labeled homosexual. We girls didn’t care.

No, we stuck to our best friends like heavy duty Velcro. So I can understand the texting phenomenon. I remember literally aching for a call from my best friend, Lynn, who didn’t have a home phone for a while. I’d call the pay phone near her home over and over, just hoping she’d be walking past.

That does sound gay, doesn’t it?

But it was a fact; we absolutely loved our friends. When someone crossed them, oh, we were ready to fight! Joanne Kelly even offered to beat up someone who was trying to sidle up to Lynn’s boyfriend. Friendship by proxy could be just as intense.

We talked on the phone whenever possible. We passed notes between classes. We talked and talked and talked and we knew absolutely everything that was going on in the others’ lives. And we fought. Oh, don’t think we didn’t fight. What do you mean you’re double dating with someone else? What do you mean we can’t sit together at the prom? You told him WHAT?

But we’d get over it. After all, we were best friends.

When we went to separate colleges, it was like we had lost an arm. Phone calls were expensive, especially on the limited amount of money we had while living on campus. So, we wrote. And we visited (and suspiciously eyed each others’ new friends). And spent the entire summer catching up. But, every September our lament was “Oh, how will I survive without you!”

Yeah; sounds really gay.

But these friendships helped us to understand what was important in relationships. And the smarter ones among us used that knowledge to pick our mates. . . male, in most cases. Because if you picked your mate the same way you picked your friends, you’d realize that there was no reason to put up with lying or being treated disrespectfully. Or, especially, being physically or emotionally abused. Because who among us would have any friend like that? It makes me wonder – and feel kind of bad – for girls today who only “talk” by texting. How sad.

Yes, your best friend could be the best model for your new – and forever – best friend.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 at 11:58 AM and is filed under Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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