Staying in touch!

In my experiences, I’ve witnessed that, ever so sadly, a lot of people tend to lose touch with their high school friends as they move on to the bigger and the better. This occurrence, luckily for me, is pretty unimaginable, as I have only grown closer to my oldest pals as we’ve grown up. Despite moving on in our lives to careers, to medical schools, to Europe, to unemployment, to boyfriends, to graduate school, to the GREs, and to Upper West Side duplexes, we’ve managed to stay in touch through it all (God bless the Blackberry!). Losing touch with people is unavoidable; sometimes, your imminent life paths just aren’t destined to converge. However, staying in touch takes a well worth it effort. Like any relationship, maintaining contact is a two-way street. So, in an effort to urge you all to stay in touch with everyone you can, I’ve going to showcase a few of my friends who are total champs at maintaining their social networks, despite moving on and moving out:

The curly haired blondie who can make me laugh like no other, the glittering [other] KR (big sis to my favorite papillon, Ladybug) lived in Germany for a whopping 11 months. 11 months! I could barely handle three while drinking tea and eating scones for a living last Fall. She traveled the globe, she drank lost of Belgian and German beer, she took lots of pictures, and she made lots of new friends. However, despite the oversized pond separating KR from her home at home and her home at college, I still felt like she was right there with me, watching “The Soup” and cracking clever puns. Admittedly, KR kept in touch with the use of bumper stickers. Remember those? As with all fads, this Facebook variety was short-lived, but it was the perfect way for KR to send images of love across the ocean. When she arrived back in the US, far more cultured than any of us could ever hope to be, it was like she never left. I’m not arguing bringing back the Bumper Sticker. Like Pogs, Beanie Babies, Yo-Yos, Pokemon, Milky Pens, and Tamigatchis, the Bumper Sticker has sailed its course. Someecards, however, has not. To me, someecards will never get old. They just have a way of speaking to me in a way unlike any other mode of communication. So, have an old friend with home you haven’t chatted in a while? Send him or her a sassy saying and thank me later for the rekindled bond.

Don’t let my favorite ginger’s red hair and freckles fool you – CO’s brain is better than Cam Jansen’s. (Remember those books? She was the kid detective with a photographic memory.) CO’s life, as she likes to remind us, is in constant shambles. Always straining to empty her gmail inbox of requests, plans, stories, and spam, CO manages to get it all done simply, due in a large part to the fact that the girl doesn’t sleep -- which will be especially useful when she starts medical school this fall in the Windy City. Need a ride from a remote train station at 4 in the morning? Call CO. Need to vent while munching down on a midnight snack? CO will answer. Want to stay out a few hours later than the rest of your entourage? CO will open a new tab and “Cheers!” to an extended evening. Now, as someone who absolutely cherishes her shut-eye, I could never condone a lifestyle that’s not sleep-resplendent. I must, however, highlight two staying-in-touch methods that are the product of the genius’s mind: firstly, mass e-mails. A literal gift from god, the mass e-mail system that’s been in effect since my group of friends hopped from our island at home to our colleges of choice has been the saving grace of many of my high school friendships. Sending an e-mail to a huge group and receiving responses replied to all is the Internet equivalent of sitting on a couch, eating Smartfood popcorn and extra chocolatey brownies, and listening to MTV hits. It brings us all back to our high school hang out -- the living room sectional couch of JT -- though without removing us from our desks, beds, floors, library nooks, or wherever we have managed to prop our MacBook Pros. The idea is almost more genius than CO herself. Almost. The girl is untouchable.

Secondly, CO is the proud organizer of a little thing we like to call Lakeside. This concept is a common one, but to me, it will never get old and will always feel unique. With each new memory made, Lakeside will always remain near and dear to my heart. There’s just something about escaping for a weekend with your entire group of friends that takes you to a totally different world – one in which all drinks come with umbrellas, in which all orange juice is spiked with champagne, in which all trampolines float, in which time stops. This upcoming Friday marks the umpteenth version of Lakeside, and I am absolutely stoked to lie on CO’s refurbished backyard dock without a care in the world. The idea of a weekend trip always reassures the fact that touch will be restored with new things to laugh about once the weekend passes. The pictures, of course, are always priceless. Below is a group shot taken during our last debaucherous trip to dear Athens, NY in 2007. (The summer '08 extravaganza was a bit of a fail -- schedules colided and exploded.) After our one-year hiatus, I'm excited for our tradition to reinstate. The umbrella drinks are a-calling...



KR is rocking the Mickey t-shirt, Ginger is the ginger all the way on the top right, and I, of course, am the one posing in a pink dress. =)