Silver & Gold

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold.

We used to sing that song in Girl Scouts - usually in a round. I thought it was cute, and my grade school frame-of-reference led me to believe that old friends were those whose parents were transferred to another town and had to leave our school, and new ones were the opposite. In my mind, the "new friends" were the gold, and the "old friends" - the ones no longer around - were the second-class silver.

I was talking with one of my oldest friends last week, and I should point out that she is not my "oldest" friend, but my friend for the longest amount of time. 25 years! I say that only because today is her birthday and I'd hate to accuse her of being elderly, although she is a month older than me.

Anyway, we got to talking about our friendship, and she mentioned that she couldn't remember a time that she had ever been really mad at me.

This made me laugh. Is she crazy? I would have been mad at me millions of times. After all, she had been with me through grade school, high school, a roommate in college and then through those still crazy times following college. All the way up to this day.

My mind raced through all of the stupid things I had done during our friendship. To be honest, I've had many moments of being insensitive, selfish, flaky...and even incoherent :)

How could she not remember a time when she had been mad?

The more I've thought about it, I've come to the realization that there were undoubtedly times when she was mad, or frustrated. But like family, true friends forgive & forget. That's most likely the reason I can't remember ever really being mad at her.

So to all of my old, true friends: I would just like to say thank you and tell you how very grateful I am for your friendship. Grateful that we've stuck together through good times and bad. Grateful that after all of these years, we are still friends and can pick up a conversation like we've only gone days without talking...even if it's been weeks or months. Grateful that our memories of the past go to those happy, silly times and not any unpleasant ones. Or maybe even more grateful that those tough times somehow made our friendships even stronger.

I'm meeting lots of new friends here in town, which is great. But at the risk of sound cheesy, I know now that these friends are my "silver" friends. You friends who I've had through thick and thin (literally :) are my "golden" friends and are truly cherished! I'm not sure what I'd do without ya.

So happy birthday, old pal. I love ya.