365 Facts: #174 (Penpals--Others)
I've written about the bulk of my penpals, definitely the major ones, but they're certainly not the only people I ever wrote to.
One of the other miscellaneous guys was someone named Michael. He lived in Arizona, making him the only American guy I recall writing to me. He ran some sort of fitness website, I want to say, and I guess what I'd had on my site gave him the impression that I was more healthful than I really was. No, sorry. He wrote me a few times but once he realized I wasn't a fitness freak that stopped.
I had a number of friends from camp that I wrote to. One was Erica, who was probably my best camp friend for a number of years. We've kept in sporadic touch in recent years, though I did hear from her as recently as the fall. Unfortunately, we don't have much in common anymore, and my inability to write people back has definitely hindered our relationship. Still? I'm glad to know she's still out there. There was another girl named Chris who I befriended early in my counselor years. She was a sweet girl who would send me funny postcards and comic strips. But then, of course, I never wrote back. God, I suck at this. And she had an acrimonious breakup with her boyfriend, who had also been a counselor; I never saw either of them again. Suckage.
I kept in touch with some of my grade school friends after I moved. Some of them moved as well; some stayed in the city. These were girls I'd known since preschool basically--Suzy, who was my best friend; Cristina; Rawee. Maybe even one of the Evas. Our writing back and forth lasted about a year and then petered off. Things with Suzy lasted a year and a half. Her birthday's in May, and I know I called her on her 16th birthday, but she wasn't home. I told her mom I'd try her again later and never did. It's been thirteen years.
It took me a while to make friends in high school. Consider that the friends I had as a sophomore weren't friends by the time I made it to the end of my junior year. I've lost touch with most of those people. Consider that prior to the holidays, I really hadn't heard from Betsy since her wedding. The people from high school I hang out with now? Strangely enough, I didn't really hang out with them back then. We had mutual friends, so that's how we knew each other; it was after those mutual friends left but we were still in town that I started hanging out with them. I guess that's why I'm sort of shy around them still. We're not all that close. That's okay, but I do think it's nice when they invite me to parties and what have you.
With college, our friendships were sort of automatically built around email. Email was far easier to deal with than snail mail. But, even with email, friendships have faded. There's only a handful of people I really talk to, and I'm still bad at getting back to them. I still have to contact Avery about getting together. Whoops. Oh well. Yeah, it all comes back to me. I'm just not that social of a person, I suppose. Maybe that's why writing to people appealed to me in the first place; I'm far less of a phone person than a letter person, believe it or not. The thing is, regardless of how I do it, I actually have to make an effort. I know I have to make the effort, but I have a hard time doing so. That's something I have to work on in the future. It's one thing to get a friend; it's far more to keep that friend. I have to remember that.
One of the other miscellaneous guys was someone named Michael. He lived in Arizona, making him the only American guy I recall writing to me. He ran some sort of fitness website, I want to say, and I guess what I'd had on my site gave him the impression that I was more healthful than I really was. No, sorry. He wrote me a few times but once he realized I wasn't a fitness freak that stopped.
I had a number of friends from camp that I wrote to. One was Erica, who was probably my best camp friend for a number of years. We've kept in sporadic touch in recent years, though I did hear from her as recently as the fall. Unfortunately, we don't have much in common anymore, and my inability to write people back has definitely hindered our relationship. Still? I'm glad to know she's still out there. There was another girl named Chris who I befriended early in my counselor years. She was a sweet girl who would send me funny postcards and comic strips. But then, of course, I never wrote back. God, I suck at this. And she had an acrimonious breakup with her boyfriend, who had also been a counselor; I never saw either of them again. Suckage.
I kept in touch with some of my grade school friends after I moved. Some of them moved as well; some stayed in the city. These were girls I'd known since preschool basically--Suzy, who was my best friend; Cristina; Rawee. Maybe even one of the Evas. Our writing back and forth lasted about a year and then petered off. Things with Suzy lasted a year and a half. Her birthday's in May, and I know I called her on her 16th birthday, but she wasn't home. I told her mom I'd try her again later and never did. It's been thirteen years.
It took me a while to make friends in high school. Consider that the friends I had as a sophomore weren't friends by the time I made it to the end of my junior year. I've lost touch with most of those people. Consider that prior to the holidays, I really hadn't heard from Betsy since her wedding. The people from high school I hang out with now? Strangely enough, I didn't really hang out with them back then. We had mutual friends, so that's how we knew each other; it was after those mutual friends left but we were still in town that I started hanging out with them. I guess that's why I'm sort of shy around them still. We're not all that close. That's okay, but I do think it's nice when they invite me to parties and what have you.
With college, our friendships were sort of automatically built around email. Email was far easier to deal with than snail mail. But, even with email, friendships have faded. There's only a handful of people I really talk to, and I'm still bad at getting back to them. I still have to contact Avery about getting together. Whoops. Oh well. Yeah, it all comes back to me. I'm just not that social of a person, I suppose. Maybe that's why writing to people appealed to me in the first place; I'm far less of a phone person than a letter person, believe it or not. The thing is, regardless of how I do it, I actually have to make an effort. I know I have to make the effort, but I have a hard time doing so. That's something I have to work on in the future. It's one thing to get a friend; it's far more to keep that friend. I have to remember that.