Circle of friends

By Natalie Armstrong

I met a special circle of friends in university.

I drifted in and joined the ring about a year and a half ago. We all may have drifted in around the same time. I can’t remember how it happened.

This core group of friends was nothing I’d ever experienced. I was never one to belong in such a tight clique. I always had patches of friends and sort of fluttered from group to group, but I could never stand being with one group too long. But this was different. They became my family.

And like a family should, we supported each other. We hung out, talked over coffee or pizza, partied and drank a lot. We shared inside jokes, lsang, dubes and even beds.

Sometimes we didn’t all hang out — we branched off into little groups. It kept our friendships new. And it kept everyone’s secrets told — which always led to misunderstandings. But things got cleared up. And then we’d play Sega, hackey sack or relive childhood games.

The clique fulfilled all I needed from people. If I could squish them all together to become one person, I’d have my soulmate.

I’ve known a lot of people, and always had a lot of friends. But I’d never been so drawn to a group. Nor had I ever felt so much like I belonged. So much so, I let them in on all my insecurities. And in time I learned theirs. It seemed out friendships were unconditional. But times also showed they weren’t.

Throughout this time, we became a support system, laughing with each other and at each other. Away from our homes we became a family. It was an ideal basis for some Aaron Spelling show or Thursday night line-up. We played our roles well.

There’s no concrete reason we were drawn to each other.

Some slept together, some just napped together. There were times we couldn’t stand being apart. We betrayed one another. We didn’t know each other as well we thought.

We hung out solidly for a year. But in the last few months, we’ve shown signs of drifting apart and breaking the circle

I don’t see them much anymore. We seem to be heading along different paths, slower ones and faster ones.

Most of them are graduating and going their separate ways. Hopefully the circle will stretch the distance between us.

But it probably won’t. And I will miss them.