Staying in Touch

As I progress through life after college, I'm finding it harder and harder to stay in touch with old friends. Interests drift apart, jobs and new friends keep us busy, and certainly, being spread out throughout the country doesn't help.

I wonder though, is it necessary to stay in touch to remain friends? I'd thought that it's a nice thing to do... With the advent of online social stalking like Facebook, it's a piece of cake to keep tabs on who lives where and does what. It'd be nice for old friends to at least care about what you're doing in life.

But does that mean we need to stay in touch consistently? Isn't that what "catching up" is all about when you finally do see that old friend again?

The key here might be to remain responsive. I've had a few people who flat out won't even respond to my e-mails and/or phone calls. When someone does that, it's essentially impossible to ever catch up. I would consider that burning the bridge. (And no, it's not entirely because I fail at life. I've seen this happen to other people close to me as well!) But as long as you leave the window open for an old friend to reach back out towards you, I think friendship will survive. 

You can't maintain all friendships, but I also don't think that you need to trade in your old friend to get a new one. As we get older, I hope that we can continue to expand our network of friends.