My friends during high school

Who our friends are change over time. One of the reasons, as you know, is because sometimes when parents move, the child ends up in a new school or neighborhood.

But our friends also change because we as people change. Sometimes we find that we have more in common with new people we meet and so start hanging around them more. That can be very sad if you're the one losing a friend.

In much the same way, my friends changed over time when I was in high school. Carl Tilseth, Mike Gansberg and Dave Almquist were my closest friends in ninth and tenth grade. That began to change, though, in tenth and eleventh grade when Darcy Brown - Dave's friend - became one of my best friends. By the end of eleventh grade and through my senior year, I wasn't hanging out much with Carl, Mike or Dave but with Darcy and a couple of his friends, Mark Fenton and Joe Dahl.

And then when I graduated and went off to college, I got a whole bunch of new friends!

Who are your friends?

My best friends in elementary school

One of the best things about going to school is that we get to make new friends. Often when before going to kindergarten, we don't have many friends at all, maybe just the next-door neighbor child, as we typically spend most of our time around our parents.

My best friend in Elmwood was Ronald Wolfe. He lived next door to me, and we were in the same grade. In first grade, we weren't in the same classroom (We had two first grade classrooms in my school), so we couldn't wait to see each other at recess and lunch time!

After moving to Knapp, my best friend for a couple of years was Marc Livermore. We played lots of games together at recess, and he introduced me to "The Six Million Dollar Man."

Marc and his family moved, though, and Jim Falkofske became my best friend in fourth grade. We both loved "Star Trek" and got to sleep over at each other's houses. But he was a year younger than me, so we didn't go to junior high together when I entered seventh grade. More on that in an upcoming entry!

Who are your best friends? What kinds of fun things do you like to do together?

Have you made any good friends?

Now that you're off to kindergarten, I'd like to ask about your friends. You've probably made some while in daycare or playing around the neighborhood; once in school, young boys and girls have a tendency to quickly gather together in groups of like-interested children. What are their names? What are they interested in? What kinds of things do you like to do together?

I remember my own father asking me the same question when I first went off to kindergarten. I recall being a little anxious about the question, as if it were some measure of my worth as to whether or not I'd made friends or not with other children.

But I don't mean to make you feel anxious. Now that I'm older and a dad, I understand that my father wasn't judging me but simply taking an interest. Just as I once did, you're closing on a point in life when your friends' ideas and perspectives will become more important to you than your parents' views and opinions; it's a natural part of growing up. So knowing who are your friends tells me if I did a good job or not raising you - if you've selected friends who are good to you and keep you from getting into trouble, then I've done my job well; if you've chosen friends who are mean to you and get you into trouble, then I've done poorly. Knowing who your friends are isn't a measure of your worth - it's a measure of mine!

So, tell me about your friends...