My best friend from middle school married my cousin, so now we're family! That makes that easy. I still keep in touch with a large number of people I went to high school with- the whole gang of us are all loosely webbed together; guess 4 years of a small magnet program built strong bonds.

In 10 years, gosh, who knows.

True friendships versus long-term acquaintanceships?

It's actually a more challenging question than it appears. All of my long-term friendships have had their own dynamic changes. I can't think of any 100% continuous friendships from my college years to the present day where there wasn't some gap due to retrenching or life-altering circumstances or somesuch. I've fallen out of contact with everyone at some point.

That being said, my answer is eight. They've all been friends for over ten, some for over twenty, and I fully expect all of them will stick around in one form or another. Of the friends I've made since then, I think at least four or five new long-termers have entered the picture.

I'm still in pretty good contact with two friends from my middle school days, which was maybe 18 or so years ago now. They both live here in town, but one's married with twins and the other just recently moved back. I hung out with him a couple of weeks ago for the first time in years (which was great, except for learning that his dad has been diagnosed with ALS, which is a total gut punch). I've known tog for damn close to ten years now, thanks to #mefi. I see her maybe once a year, but we've shot the shit forever via irc, then gchat, and now text. Unfortunately, I lost most of my college friends in a trainwreck of a breakup that involved my ex-g/f and ex-closest-I've-ever-had-to-a-brother. Last I heard, they're married. Bully for them.

I'd like to think that I'll still have some level of friendship with the three aforementioned friends in ten years, assuming we're all still alive. Beyond that, who knows? All I've learned is that it's a total crapshoot, despite the best of intentions.

Oh, but I did neglect to mention my Dallas buddies, who I've known for 7 or 8ish years now. There are at least three from that scene that I'll almost certainly remain friends with for as long as we're around. My former roommate (who I'm staying with next weekend) and I will probably be in touch forever. He's as solid, loyal, and awesome as they come. Can't wait to see him again.

My childhood best friend and I are still dear friends, 34 years later. We've had dormant periods of little contact, but we always come back together. From that, I've learned that some friendships go underground for a while, but they can come back, too.

My friend K. and I started as co-workers and friend-of-a-friend over 15 years ago. Over the years, K and I have become very close; she was Best Woman at my wedding two years ago. The mutual friend who introduced us was startled and, I think, a little sad to hear that... but she's become increasingly (and understandably) more absorbed in her home life over the last decade, and has been less and less interested in keeping contact with single friends. I hope she understands; I think she does.

Oddly enough, a few of my friends of 10+ years ago and from a different town are also old (though not quite so old) friends of The Fella, so we're pretty well entrenched with them. I've made a few new friends in recent years whom I'm confident will one day be dear old friends.

All of my friendships are extremely long term ones. My best friend and I have known one another since freshman year in college. Most other close friends I have known for at least 20 years. I would love to make some new ones (the old ones tend to live far away) but I seem to have lost the knack.

Oh, man! I TOTALLY forgot my friends TC & CC, whom I knew in Chicago almost 20 years ago. We visit every few years, and it always feels like we're picking up a conversation from the night before. Some people just click, no matter how long it's been and (at least in my case) how much they've changed.

Several years ago, TC came out to Maine and crashed on our couch --- and to my delight, he and The Fella got on like a house afire. C&C came east just for our wedding (and I roped them into all the family celebrations that weekend). They had both been dear friends of my late partner, so having them there (and so obviously thrilled for us) felt like a benediction.

I am blessed to have lots of friends from 10 years and much further back. Of the 10 I can think of right off the bat, I think at least 7 will still be in my life in another 10 years. The other three are a crap shoot, but they've held on this long, so who knows?

Huh. I moved to the USA just under 10 years ago, so all my friends here don't apply to this question.

So that leaves me with
* t minus 10-15 years = graduate school friends

Still good friends with 4 or 5 of those (let me see... S, J, D, J, M, yeah). Good friends meaning they stay with me when they are in town, I keep in touch regularly, call, facebook, email... remember their birthdays etc. etc. etc. Still casual friends with another 5 or so. Casual meaning facebook contact, maybe one email a year, look them up but don't stay with them if they are in town and vice versa.

* t minus 15-18 years = college friends

Still good friends with... S, T, H, D, K, M, casual friends with another 10 or so.

* t minus >18 years. High school and older. I only ever stayed in continuous contact with two friends from high school, Carl and Paul. Still in contact with them, but not close contact. Have reconnected with another 3 or 4, but just at the casual facebook level.

there's probably a few that I am missing, but I am closest to two of my college friends and two of my grad school friends. I kind of went through an extreme asshole phase in my early twenties, and the college friends saw me through it, and the grad school friends I would never have made if I hadn't overcome it :)

Oh, the second part? I dont' see myself losing any of the good old friends I have. Not in this era of constant communication... facebook, skype etc. My closest friends all live on the other side of the world and I still communicate with them almost daily.

New friends I've made in the USA? Who knows how they'll shake out :)

Two - my husband and another friend I met in the same chatroom. I hope at least one of them is still friends with me in ten years.

I'm surprised how hard it is for me to figure out how long I've known people. I know I'm the "live in the present" type, but this is ridiculous.

My oldest living friends are Ardiril and one non-MeChazen (who's back in Canada now but used to live here), whom I've known for about 20 years. There's also a third friend from that time who I guess I'm an acquaintance of now, though I'd like to become friends with him again.

I'm not still friends with anybody I knew growing up- too much change, both for me and them. I was never interested in holding on to any of them, except for one who died as soon as we hit our 30s. He and I were very close right up until his death.

I have several friends in other cities whom I've known for over ten years and I consider real friends, even though we've only met in person a couple of times. One is almost like a brother to me, and we've known each other for about 15 years, but we've only met in person four times. (He's also not a MeChazen, though I've tried to lure him here.)

It's hard for me to believe MetaChat hasn't even existed for ten years, because so many people I consider real-life friends are people I know through this site. Crazy.

How many of my current friends do I think I'll have in ten years? Well, all of them, I hope. But I know I won't, and I have no idea who'll be around and who won't. Time takes its toll, but none of us know how. I don't worry about it, really- appreciate the people who are around you now, and learn to appreciate the ones who are around you in the future, I say. People will come and go, some will make an imprint on your heart, and those are the ones you'll always be friends with, no matter where you or they go.

I didn't have any contact with friends from high-school and grade school until Facebook. I'm not sure that I can call them friends since our interaction is limited to normal Facebook stuff.

College friends though, I have a few that I've been good friends continuously with for almost thirty years now. We're all the same age and can't believe how we all got so old.

Living in the same city for twenty-two years now, I've ended up knowing some of the same people for almost that long just through proximity. Or working with them. I work with two guys who I've worked with at two different jobs for over a dozen years now. And one of my best friends is an ex-girlfriend who I've known for almost fifteen years now and we're still good friends even though we broke up a dozen years ago and both got married since.

My oldest living friends are Ardiril and one non-MeChazen (who's back in Canada now but used to live here), whom I've known for about 20 years.

Huh. I knew you guys were (RL) buddies, but I didn't know y'all went back into pre-Mefi/MeCha days. That's pretty cool.

about 4. All of them, hopefully.

I have one friend I've known for a little over ten years. There's another friend I'd kept in Christmas card contact with for many years - we were flatmates in the late 1970s - but through FB we are now in closer contact although she lives 250 miles away, so I don't get to see her at all.

Pretty much all the friends I have had for more than ten years are from boat racing. We don't keep in constant contact mostly and, in some cases, dont see each other for periods of up to years. Still, we pick up where we left off last time we met and it's as if we have never been apart. That is, though, possibly because, although I consider them close friends, our lives actually only intercept in limited ways. I think these people (maybe 8 people in total) will be friends of mine forever.

As far as newer friends go, my best friend is someone I've known for almost five years and I expect (and hope) that we will be friends forever. I'd be crushed if that turned out not to be the case, as I think she would. Our friendship has been incredibly important to both of us over the years and we would both be the poorer if we lost it.

I don't have lots of true friends, which is fine by me.

20 years ago I could have named 15. Now I only have 3 non-related friends of more than 10 years, but over the years I've developed some incredible friends within my extended family of cousins. Since I spend so much time with family I guess I don't look outside so much for friends anymore.

I'm not a very active facebook user, but it did get me a job, and put me back in touch with people from long ago. Not too many on a deep level, but I know where to get my L (30 years), W (25 years) or M (20 years) if I need them, and the connection still feels specific and true.

I moved to my current city about 15 years ago. I've got three active close friendships of say 14 years duration, including my husband.

Being involved in the local theatre community is interesting, as it fosters intense but finite relationships. You do a show with someone, and it's easy to pick back up when you run into them at another show. It's also catty and incestuous and all, but I think my memorial would be well attended thanks to those folks, many of whom I've known for over ten years.

And I hope all this will continue. I developed a circle of girlfriends about five or six years ago that isn't holding. I think because the most fun and organizational is also the most crazy and divisive. Also, two work restaurant schedules now vs. one.

Strangely, my grad school years, where I had very intense relationships with many people, are a blank now. I'm not in touch with anyone. I don't know why.

I play music with the same 4 guys I played with 20 years ago. I see my best friend from high school(class of 81) a 3 or 4 times a month. I am in close contact with another friend from high school, I see him a few times a year. I just passed my tenth year at the same job, so a lot of friends there. I'm still good friends with a woman I dated in the early 90's.

A bunch- many of my best friends today are friends I made at summer camp when I was 9. I also have a bunch of friends from high school and in a few years my college friends will count as well.
I guess I'd say I have about 8 true friends that fit the bill.
In 10 years?
I hope all of them still plus the 4 college friends I see all the time.

None (except my husband, of course, who's my best friend ever). I've had some very close friendships over the years which meant a lot to me at the time, but none that I'm still in touch with. That's kind of sad, I guess. But life goes on. I think part of me doesn't want to be bothered. I can't imagine trying to keep up with multitudes. I usually do have one close person in my life at any given time (Sucheta at U. of Miami; Jen at Miami U; Bari and Rob from Borders; Stacey and Beth growing up...), but since my good friend Nan retired from the school I teach at a year and a half ago, there's no one really. I'm friendly with a lot of people at work, of course, but it's not the same. And I enjoy keeping up with folks here at Metachat, but so many of y'all live so far away. Such is life.

I did get an email from my childhood friend and neighbor, Stacey, who lives in San Diego (naturally), and who I hadn't heard from in years, which was nice. I knew her since she was five, and now she has a little girl of her own, which is very sweet. I owe her a reply.

I don't have many friends, for I am a loathsome and unlikeable individual, but I have a friend I've known since kindergarten, a friend from high school, and two friends I've made from a restaurant I used to work at. Oh! And Terry. He's an ex-gutter punk and a good soul. And BoringPostcards. He's my friend.

I hope they'll all still be my friends for many, many years.

I think it's easy to blur the line between acquaintance and friend. I have many acquaintances, some of whom I'm quite fond of, but few real friends. That's OK. That makes the ones I do have that much more valuable.