Do you miss friends you aren’t close to anymore?

[Anonymous]

I've travelled the world for work so I miss a lot of people I've met/worked with/interacted with over the years and I think of them fondly and the laughs we had. Hope they remember me fondly as well. I'm not a social media person so I'd never actually look for anyone and often I didn't know their last names.

[Anonymous]

I have a different take on Social Media & Modern technology. I think its made things infinitely easier to stay in touch with friends. Sure, I still have lost some over the years, but I still have a HighSchool Friend text chain that regularly chats, College Friends prefer a Facebook group, etc. Traveling to see each other was easy in our 20s, we had girls weekends, weddings, bachelorette parties, reunions, etc. Now we are older, but we keep up enough that I have never felt at a loss for friends...

That being said, at the same time, we don't live near each other. I see these friends maybe 1-2 times a year. We have a blast, and still communicate in some way on a frequent basis. But despite having so many friends, I find myself regularly with "no friends".

Now that I am older, have kids, can't travel as frequently, etc., I need more local friends. I need someone who can grab a quick coffee, or meet up at a Yoga class, grab a drink after the kids go to bed, etc.. The DC area is so expansive that my work friends are not even close by. I have all these friends, and yet, when it matters and I am looking for someone to do something with, I have "no friends."

I compare this with my mother.. who stayed in touch with like 1 friend from when she grew up. All her friends were in her immediate vicinity. It wasn't that she didn't have good friends growing up... but the only way people stayed in touch was an annual Christmas Card and a phone call here or there (expensive long distance fees!). Staying connected in any way was hard... so you just started over and made new friends. And she always had someone local to do something with.