“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”

[Dalek]

Stand By Me is one of my favorite movies and today I let my own child watch it for the first time. I was 12 when I watched it and she's 12 too.
The final line of the movie is by the narrator and this line really resonates with me now that I'm an adult-something I wouldn't have thought about when I was a kid. It's heartbreaking and absolutely true.

 

[Deleted member 21339]

Kinda do to be honest. I'm still in regular, daily contact with people I grew up with. Maybe not when I was 12 but from my HS and college days for sure.

 

[HStallion]

I've got a small circle of really good friends but only a handful live anywhere close to me. Oddly enough the pandemic has had us catching up and talking a lot more over discord and the like. I don't talk with many of my HS era friends as so many feel like entirely different people even considering you change as you age.

 

[Okabe]

Still got my friends from when I was 12 .....I mean I understand its rare as hell but we're stuck together like glue ya know ?

 

[xxracerxx]

I have better friendships today than when I was twelve. Hell a few of my friends are from when I was 12.

 

[Rosebud]

:(

 

[Tanerian]

My absolute best friends I met in my early teens in in online game (everquest). I lived with one of them as a roomate for 4 years, and play DnD with them online every week.

I've never met anyone who is closer to me. Even my best friend from age 5 doesn't compare.

 

[Blue Skies]

My best friends were from 17-22
It was an alcohol and drug fueled party time

nongood friends since then. Just wasn't good for me to stay friends with them

 

[PickledCucumber]

I didn't have friends when I was 12 :(

 

[Travo]

I love that movie, but never read the story. I think River Phoenix's real death really resonates here considering the age of his character when he died. All these years and it's still difficult to imagine Wil Wheaton turning into Richard Dreyfus. 😂

 

[Deleted member 60582]

100% true. You never really make friends the way you did before adult bullshit got in the way.

 

[Doggg]

Yeah, what the hell is Goofy?

 

[Bad Advice]

I have known my only friend since year 3. We lost contact for a couple of years but then continued our friendship as if nothing had happened. All my friends from college? Barely any contact anymore. Kind of sad really.

 

[julia crawford]

I made some of my best friends when i was 27, and i still have them.

That said i was pretty lucky.

 

[N7Commander01]

Wonderful film

My friends now are much better than when I was when I was a kid - in so far that I actually have good ones

 

[Dalek]

Yeah, what the hell is Goofy?

Click to shrink...

He wears a hat and drives a car.

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

I absolutely love this movie.

Aside from that, my best friends phase happened from like 19 to 27 or something and came to a screeching halt since. I feel lonely and bored ever since.

 

[sapien85]

My closest friends were in high school. But otherwise it's accurate, never made super close friends in adulthood outside of relationships. On the plus side my relationships improved as an adult.

 

[ss1]

I don't really have any friends from when I was 12. In fact I don't really have any friends from School period. I guess it's because I went a different direction from everyone else. All my friends are folks that I got to know during University and from the companies that I've worked at.

 

[ScoobsJoestar]

I have much closer friends now than when I was 12 to be honest.

 

[wandering]

In terms of sentimentality? Sure, but for me my most validating, healing, and profound friendships came in adulthood.

There's only so much intellectual and emotional work you can do when you're twelve.

 

[hwarang]

well our imagination was certainly more adventurous back then

 

[Deleted member 16516]

Stlll have my best friend from that age in my life. We're pretty much brothers, and I'm his kid's godfather. Have another great friend who I've known for three years now. Definitely possible to make amazing friends when you're an adult.

Great film though, and the novella it's based on isn't too shabby either.

 

[Deleted member 9932]

:(

 

[Huncho_Houdini]

For me the friends from age 16-25 were/are the best.

But great film.

 

[Kinketsu]

I have moved around a lot in my adult life which probably doesnt help but I would say I only have one real friend from the age of 12, as in someone I would think I could depend on and vice versa despite not being in constant contact. I mean, I am maybe not a great example, I havent spoken to the best man at my wedding in about 9 years though we used to hang out every day and havent had a falling out or anything. One of my favourite people in the world is my older brother and I havent seen him in the flesh in a decade. But I think it just stands to reason that you make friends as a child when you are forced together with people in school etc. and when you are older, they are often more friendships of convenience or necessity and often arent tenable outside of that specific situation. I suppose I met my wife when I was 23 so that is the most successful adult relationship so far!

 

[Keldroc]

The friends I had when I was 12 were assholes, really. Which I guess doesn't invalidate the line but it does put a different spin on it.

 

[Jill Sandwich]

LARDASS! LARDASS! LARDASS!

 

[Ogodei]

Have I had closer friendships since childhood, i.e. friendships where we hung out more often or shared in more of each other's lives? No.

Have I had *better* friendships in the sense that they bettered me as a person and the relationship was more meaningful? Yes.

 

[Fulminator]

the friends ive made since leaving high school are probably the best friends ive had imo

im still in touch with my childhood friends but it's not the same.

 

[SkyMasterson]

I'm really lucky. The friends that I had in Middle/ High School, I'm still friends with we try to meet for food and drinks once a month. We also, all play games online with each other a few times a week.

For reference, we graduated High School in 2002. Really fortunate to have the group that we have.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

I definitely met my best friends this past decade (20+). More so than friends earlier on in life.

YMMV, but I'm one of those people that look back on my grade school days and see very little worth remembering/cherishing

 

[Kohlbiri]

Still hang out with the friends I made in middle and high school. I keep in contact with one from elementary school, but when I think about all the other friends I had in elementary school—wow, can not believe we were friends because we hardly had anything in common! Can't imagine hanging out with them now, it would be super weird.

 

[Deleted member 41178]

Ah man that hit me right in the feels, this movie was a big part of my childhood and I don't speak to a single one of my friends from back then.

The oldest friendship I have now is a guy I met when I was 27, and I'm just about to turn 40.

Didn't fall out with my friends from back then we all just drifted apart after school and didn't keep in touch.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

I have had the same best friend since we were twelve in late 1987, and I saw that movie around then. I posted this is in another thread recently:

The last time I stayed over and played multiplayer games at my best friend's house really hit home how long we have been doing that.

The first time we did that we played Rambo on 8-bit Sega and the last time was the most recent Call of Duty on Xbox One.

But it's true that most friends I had as a kid/teen are long gone from my life.

 

[Anth0ny]

my peak was 8th grade

lost more friends than I made in high school

didn't make any friends in university

haven't made any friends post school. old friends are married now and never want to do shit. even with the rona we've done like 2 zoom chats total

 

[Strat]

My small friend group all linked up when we were 17-18 and we've been tight ever since. I don't think a day as passed in 15+ years where we haven't all talked.

I kept up with a single friend from my younger years, but he was less and less relatable as we got older. Mid-20's he started disappearing and reappearing for large stretches of time. Like, legit would turn up and borrow a game, disappear for 8 months, then show up on my doorstep with the game and be around for a few months before taking off again. Eventually I got married, had a kid and moved, all during one of his vanishing acts. Haven't talked to him since and I don't even think he knows where I went.

 

[BasilZero]

My "Friends" werent friends.


With the "friends" I had in school/work, what was the point of having any enemies?


Same thing applied for the people who I had met online in the last couple of years from different communities, MMOs, etc.


No regrets in cutting ties with any of them - most of them were dragging me down and feel so free now compared to the past.


Nowadays anyone I meet, they are just an acquaintance, nothing more.

 

[Deleted member 23850]

I have better friendships today than when I was twelve. Hell a few of my friends are from when I was 12.

Click to shrink...

I had no friends when I was 12.

Nothing has changed.

 

[BaconHat]

I haven't talked with any of my childhood friends in quite a long time. Still, in a stroke of irony, the friends i've made due to them becoming friends later in life to those childhood friends, i'm still close to this day.

 

[neon/drifter]

None of them. The friendships I do have, I'm certain are temporary. :(

 

[meowdi gras]

Not a fan of this film. Thought it fantastic when I first saw it, but I was only 11 at the time. Doesn't hold up viewing it as an adult.

 

[It’s Time To Go]

I didn't have friends when I was 12, nor do I as a 27 year old.

 

[Deleted member 2474]

i have way better friends now than when i was 12 lmao

 

[Lost Lemurian]

I honestly didn't really have good friends when I was 12. I lived out in the country and went to a small school.

I met my best friend when we were 14, though. I'll be 32 this year, and I still hang out with him almost every week (well, until lockdown, lol, but we just talked today).

Honestly, I feel closer to him and my other current friends, all of whom I met in college or afterward, than anyone I knew when I was 12.

 

[jelly]

Still have friends from teens 15+ from school but best friends before that, none, I did run into a few at University which was holy shit cool but the circles you moved in were already apart and apart in Uni so never reconnected to anything close again.

 

[KtotheRoc]

I'm still friends with some of the people I was friends with when I was 12. We don't talk as much as we used to, but we always pick up right back where we left off when we do.

 

[KomandaHeck]

Met my best friend at 17 and I only like him more now at 26. There was like a 2-3 year period where we barely talked as well after we finished the college course we were on together.

12 was about the age where I started to realise I had very little in common with the friend group I went through primary school with. I feel like that quote is lamenting the simplicity of youth more than anything, adult friendships are better, although admittedly more difficult to form.

 

[viral]

I've known my best friends since I was like 7 years old, and I really only have friends from work other than them. We live in a small town though, so it was easy to stay in touch.

 

[Deleted member 17092]

Yeah it's pretty rare but I still have a few from that far back.