After I graduated from high school, I was still in rather close contact/relationship with the group of friends i grew up during my years @ high school. Just recently, within these past couple 6 months or so, my friends started drifting off 1 by 1. New boyfriends/girlfriends, workaholics, co-op programs, friends who group hop constantly, friends who you realize weren't friends. They're so busy and such that I no longer see em often anymore, I guess this is what it means to be in the world of the 20+?? Hell, tonight I didn't do anything but stay home on a friday night and even many previous friday nights because every1 is busy tonight and/or has work in the morning. And my 2 close friends that I play wow with are like "eff... bored. where the eff is every1 @"
I still go to university full time, have a part time job, still rather healthy physically, I dont see why my friends cant do this or are they pushing themselves much more than myself?

I think 20 is rather still early to do this to themselves, should free up some time for friends because probly in the later years is where serious career/work will take up your whole life. Actually no, I know some 24 year olds who balance their work and friends really well so I don't even know anymore. I guess when you hit 20+, you really only hang out with the people you see on a daily basis more compared to the people once you saw. Like Coworkers over friends, Classmates over friends, lover over friends. I know that it is just a phase and eventually we'll be hanging out again and people like fresh stuff and meet new people cuz i kno i do too. Meh this is more of a rant than an opening topic lol but yea, lets see what the majority of 20+ people have to say.

I'm in 0% contact with anyone from my high school....just cause I didn't have that many to begin with. Either way, my close friends are my cousins. Some of them I only see month to month basis cause our schedules don't match. They have their life to deal with and I have my own. I have different priorities than they do too. Overall, when we have time, we'll hang out like old times.

I personally do hang out with my co-workers more than my cousins only cause our scheduling is pretty much the same.

I don't know why, but I feel like I am being more social after I began working than when I was in school. Or what I am trying to say is that I make more of an effort to be more social than I did before. When I was in school I met my friends on a regular basis, but after joining the workforce you don't see them as much and I try to meet up with them after work for dinner or drinks. It makes me unwind from a long day of stress and work to laugh and share a meal with them.

I am not in close contact with my high school friends anymore, but my uni friends are friends I would want to be in my life forever. But as you said, when people grow up they tend to switch their group of friends, more because as you grow you choose your friends more wisely, meaning people who you hang out with because of common interest than circumstances.

when i went to uni, i sort of kept in contact since most of my friends also went to uni with me (just different programs).
After university, most of the ppl I've kept in touch with is via online. People move where the job is and are quite busy with their own lives... We also have have different interest now - so I find that it's getting more awkward as the time goes by.

I thot the same, as people grow older, their priorities tend to shift a bit and put work/school over many things. Me on the other hand, always put friends on top of my list but I think thats gonna change soon. I guess with everyone going to different universities and going to work at different places is whats separating everyone. Probably in my mindset, its still "fun" and rest of my friends "money/career". I gotta grow up like em

There's only one person whom I keep in contact with during high school. The reason why him and I are still in contact was because my current friends are also friends with him. If it weren't for them, I probably wouldn't have talked to him still.

My two best friends I"ve known and been in contact with since elementary school.

Last week I got an email from an old high school friend. Actually the first time I met him we were around eight years old, I guess, and then we ended up at the same secondary school. For five years we ate lunch together almost every day (where I went to school secondary school was grades 8-12). The last time I saw him was at his wedding nine years ago. He managed to track me down through another friend and we exchanged some emails.

He's now a pastor at an Evangelical Free church, which is about as conservative as Canadian churches get. He just had a kid and got a house. I'm still living like I was ten years ago. It just seems our lives have nothing in common anymore whatsoever - maybe watching hockey, but that's about it.

After high school I only kept in contact via online Windows Live Messenger with one high school friend. He moved after graduating, and now works in a new environment with new people. There's really no point in keeping contact with him since he's so busy with his "next" life and I just feel like I'm being a burden since I'm the only one that initiates the conversation. The same applies to a college friend. So, basically I have no friends now. I drifted apart from everyone else that I used to hang around in high school and college. Funny how one day you could be their favourite friend, and then suddenly drop into oblivion. So yeah, I'll never be an 'important friend'...just a passing one.

It depends on your friends.

If your friends truly cared about your friendship, they would make time for you.

May I ask, if you propose outings with your friends?

Most of my friends moved after graduation because of school, but we try to meet up every now and then. But I love hanging out with them because I don't have any school friends I hang out with....sad...but true

I'm still in contact with a few friends back in high school through the net. I moved away and a few moved themselves, too. We just email or leave a few messages through facebook. The funny thing is that some of them aren't close friends. (Well, back in high school, I was socially awkward and I only had a few close friends.) It's nice to hear from them and see how's their life is going.

Right now, my social life is like zero. It's not like I don't have any friends. It's just that we all have different goals. And not too recently, one of my closest friend just moved away. So whenever I go out now, it's just me. (Being a foreigner doesn't help in this xenophobic country, too.)

In high school, I wasn't really close to anyone in particular. I knew a lot of people, but I only considered most of them acquaintances. As a matter of fact, my group of friends did not go to the same high school as I did. I've been away from home for about three years now, but we're all still very good friends. Although we're growing up, getting real jobs, finding new interests, and changing priorities, we know that we're only a phone call away. And whenever we're all in town, we always get together to catch up. As for my few friends in high school, we still keep in touch once in a while.

@Pogichinoy - i'm always one of the main ppl in our group who initiates events and my house being 1 of the main places we go to so i do invite ppl. I'm not the quiet type if thats what u were implying. Like a lot of you guys, msn is the only 1 thing we keep in contact with now a days, before it was typical watch movies, out for dinner, clubbing or drinking @ someone's house. And it seems like a majority of you only "occasionally" keep in touch with your high school friends. Thats me now, but wasnt like that couple months back

I'm in contact with 2 1/2 people I know from high school. The half because i still talk to him, just not as much as I used to in high school.

I guess we all drifted apart from high school and all had different interest. I was never really too interested in the whole gaming thing. Well i do enjoy playing some games but I'm not interested to the point i'd spend friday night at a LAN with them.

i feel like i've lost almost all contact with people i've gone to high school with. we pretty much all went our separate ways when we graduated. i mean there's still facebook to keep us together, but not really. all my close friends are all doing their own thing and i haven't seen half of them for maybe two years despite the fact that we were still really close after high school. i miss them a lot, but there's nothing i can do about it and distance really does separate people. it's inevitable that we grew apart and don't really have anything in common anymore...

I still see my close friends from high school at least once a month (about 8 of them). Whenever i'm bored, I just call them out to chill; although not everyone will be available. We all have our own friends and do our own thing but we still find time to hang out. My current roommate is actually one of my best friends from high school. I'm 24 by the way.

Be more proactive, you love/like your mates right? Send text messages, initiate more, even though you will be the one who is always the instigator, at least you can say that you always try your best to keep the group together.

Has anything big happened in their lives? i.e. gf/bf/family issues/etc.

I graduated in 2007 and after that, I didn't talk to anyone from high school. But then for some reason, I started hanging out with two old friends last year...still hanging out with them since I consider them my closest friends now. I occasionally talk to some people from high school because everyone is still pretty close by.

If it wasn't for facebook I wouldn't talk to anyone from my high school except my sister's best friend. We were in the same girl scout troop for years so we're friends too. I am still close with some of my former coworkers and students. I don't really feel like I have much in common with my former classmates even though some of us were together from nursery school through high school. I had friends in high school, but they had such powerful personalities I never felt like my voice was ever heard. Growing up in a small town you get pigeon-holed into being a certain person (So & So's daughter/older sister). It's so hard to get away from that if you don't leave it behind. I guess that meant leaving them behind too.

i graduated from college 2 years ago and have been steadily working. there's probably 10 friends or so from elementary, junior high and high school that i'm consistently in contact with (i live in LA, so most of my old school friends are still around). but those friends we've lost touch more than one time and now that we're older, those are the old friends that now remain real friends. you have to understand that people change and undoubtedly, you will change as well.
the friends that i usually hang out with now are people from work, a few old friends from junior high, and a few from college. actually these days, i'm happier not being surrounded by so many people. i'm grateful that i have meaningful friendships with only a handful of great friends.

I still do hang out with my friends from back in high school (that makes me sound incredibly old, does it not.), and up until recently I was still very close with my best friend from high school. We'd still have sleepovers weekly (regardless of our age) and we'd relieve ourselves of our "mature act" at work and act like giggly high school girls when we're out shopping, having dinners, or just chilling out at each other's places. Although there were a LOT of things that I was annoyed with her (like her bad habit for overspending even though she didnt make a lot to start with), she was really fun to hang around and it reminded me of carefree highschool days when all I needed to worry about was to study for the quiz the next day.

Anyway. She took some classes with me the last year of university and she bonded with some people that I didn't really like - the "wrong crowd" to say - and day by day she ended up being a totally different person. It stayed this way until we graduated and she still chose those friends, and I guess, I had no choice but to realize that we've finally grown out of each other.

On a brighter note, my best friend from my childhood and I are still very close.
Just today she wore one of her hairstyles from way back in freshman high school years and it was like I stepped in a time machine. =) Though I don't mind being the one with many friends, but I am also still very happy with the small selection of people with whom I have true friendship with. =)

I grew up literally on the fringes of a city. The whitest suburban neighborhood you can imagine. I had lots of white friends growing up but as we got older, I found I had less in common with them. I had next to zero asian friends. It wasn't until university that i made my first asian friends. I found I had more in common with them but when university ended, we all kinda went our separate ways because people tend to follow jobs. A few moved away to other cities and the gang kinda just split apart. Plus girlfriends came into the loop and some already had their own group of friends already.

It seems like I'm always the only one whose left without a group or clique. I have zero social life now and because of that, the possibility of a girlfriend is impossible. No girl wants, especially an asian girl, would be interested in a guy with no social life.

It's sad but the only thing I look forward to on a weekly basis is work. My favorite part of the weekend is sunday night because I know there's work the next day. It keeps me busy and my mind occupied. As I'm getting older, I find it's harder and harder to make good friends. I have acquaintances but I wouldn't really consider them my friends because we simply don't have that much in common. And a lot of the people who I kinda wanna be friends with, they have their own groups already and a lot are hitched these days too and have their own goals and are busy so there's not much room for me in their lives.

yes i do.....partied like a rockstar with them yesterday...=]

I don't have any contacts with them anymore, which is really sad. I only have one real friend and we're oceans apart I don't feel like making new friends. And with my line of work, it will be almost impossible to make one as we don't have much social interaction.

I am anti-social. I rather have one good friend than bunch of friend who wants to go out all the time. I will never be that kind of person. Too old for parties/clubs or shopping too.

Well I'd like to think that I'm still really close with all my friends from high school =)
I live with my best friend and her bf (so the 3 of us are really tight ^^) and although all the rest of my high school friends are in different universities/cities, we still find the chance to meet when we go home and such.
We meet mostly during birthdays, Christmas and other random holidays throughout the year when we're all home.
It's kinda sad because even after 3 years of university, they're still who I'm closest with and I haven't made many university friends that I see outside of class =(
I guess this is what I get for maintaining close ties with old friends instead of making new ones >_<

--xoxo.
TM

I guess i've become a bit cynical mainly because in my personal experience no matter how close you are with them, once you move away it's "out of sight, out of mind". Sure you can stay in contact with IM, phone, Facebook...but eventually phone calls stop and time zones make IM difficult leaving only Facebook and the occasional email. For guys you don't call each other on the phone or do web cam/microphone chat.

Gosh! I must be the odd one out then! I am still very close with three of my elementary school friends. We see each other at least twice a month and take turns paying for meals. Another one of my closest friends who I see every week and call almost every day is someone I met in piano class when I was 9. I started my business with my collegemate and a housemate of mine during my early twenties calls me from where ever she is every week (she travels a lot). Of course there are many other friends from school, college and work, but I probably meet them twice a year. My friends keep me sane!

i graduated high school almost 6 years ago and i probably keep in contact with...one? haha and that's only through facebook and we barely talk. i also have friends from 10-11 years ago but though we still talk every now and then, i'm only close to maybe two? it's hard and especially when people change over time. its sad, i know, but what can one do? we all have lives of our own now.

Yeah, I'm still in contact with most of my high school friends. But a lot of them go to different universities, so it is hard to keep in contact through the year, but whenever they visit during christmas or summer, we always hang out and catch up just like old times. Most of my friends haven't changed personality-wise since high school...so we still click.

During school though, I hang out with people I see most often...that's kind of the way it is with my classes.

The only real contact I have with friends from high school is Facebook... maybe 1 of them (who is 2 years younger than me) I really talk to, but only online... I think the last time we hung out in person was back in October for my boyfriend's birthday, and the time before that was for my birthday in July.

As for work, HAH. I thought those people cared about me, but after I quit work in July, no one really talks to me much anymore. One girl from work will randomly talk to me on Facebook, and we didn't talk at work as much as my other friends at work. I found out that everyone (minus one girl who my manager didn't like I think...) went to Dave and Buster's after the store was closed down and hung out. I was not invited or told about it, but I knew about it because they would talk about it amongst each other through Facebook. The same girl who talks to me sometimes, told me that she was told that everyone was invited... yeahhh, that didn't happen. I was pretty hurt because I thought we were all cool, but I guess I was wrong.

not anymore, since my closest high school friends moved to California i couldn't see them anymore.
some who went to the same school and same course, but we're not really that friends who hang out together.