Dinner: $100. Friendship: Priceless

Yeah, I know it's trite, but alas, it's true. I just came back from a trip to see my old school buddies in the USA. I have to admit that the very thought of seeing them after over a quarter of a century had me in a bit of a state. I was so nervous that I barely able to sleep the night before and two hours before the event was to take place, I was uncontrollably weeping due to fear.

It was all for nothing.

Time seemed to have stood still.

We met at a "family" restaurant because it seemed to be the best and most neutral location and would probably have something everyone could eat. But it was the conversation. It seemed to pick up right from where we had left off. The incessant teasing, the double entendre, the shared history took me back to my late teens. There was no awkwardness. There was no fear of putting a foot wrong and offending. The conversation flowed as if we had never been apart.

I suppose that is what makes friendships so incredibly special. Yes we have gone in different directions and are doing things today that we could never have envisioned ourselves doing 25 years ago. Yes, we have a few gray hairs and some extra poundage that wasn't there upon our graduation from high school. Yes, we each have had some harrowing experiences that have given us a maturity that would shock many of our old teachers. But we came together as we are now, remembering who we were then, and still enjoyed acceptance.

We remembered our extended friendships and wished they were with us. By the time the evening ended, if everyone we discussed had shown up the party would have been over 50 people!

And we promised we would do it again with everyone there.

But why is this important? Why do we need to keep contact with people we haven't seen for over half our life? Who are they really? They are some of the most important people we will ever know. They are the people who helped mold us into the adults we are today even if they don't realise it. They are the first people we freely chose to take into our confidence outside our immediate family. They are the first people we stood up and defended when our parents gasped in horror. They are the people with whom we had many of our "firsts" on the way to adulthood.

Did everyone turn out to be a perfect, gleaming, Disney-fied adult? If I'm any thing to go by, the answer is no. But I became an adult. And so did my friends. And in the 25 years I kept them close in my heart, they also did not forget me totally.

Will it happen? Will we come together again? Oddly, I think it will. The net of friendship has been cast out far and wide. Our "lost" ones are slowly being gathered back in. Will we be closer and have more to share with each other? Yes. How do I know this? Because true friendships never die.

Dinner: $100.

Friendship: Priceless.