Best Friends Forever?

Tonight I called someone who I had not talked to in more than a year. When I had to leave a message with her roommate, I was at a loss of what to say. Was I her friend? Her old high school buddy? I settled on this: her friend, Brady.

In fact, we were closest friends in high school. But like millions of other people who were bff's in high school, something happened to us in college. We weren't the same people. And after a month-and-a-half of being a part, we knew it. Or at least, I knew it. I was living in Minneapolis. She was in Forest City, Iowa.

We talked occasionally throughout college through e-mail and over the phone. But we rarely saw each other. The death of our friendship was the elephant in the room -- we knew it had happened but we didn't talk about it.

Often when I'm back home or on a long drive by myself, I'll think about lost friends and how sad it is that we have let people we once valued so much drift so far away.

Lost friendships is a lot like death. We mourn both. As much as we try to revive them, they never come back the same.

I e-mailed my friend around two months ago. She never wrote back. I get those forwards we send everyone in our address book from time to time. She called last weekend. She had heard the news about the engagement.

When we finally do talk, I'm not sure if we'll pick up from where we left off. I don't even know where that is. Maybe over time, we'll become friends again. Because if you're like me, it's always hard to get over a death.