Friendships that endure the test of time

I joined my wife on a business trip back to Manhattan last week, the city of my birth. I am a very proud New Yorker, feel it is truly the most cosmopolitan and accepting city on the planet. Ellis Island set this tone over a century ago, for the entire metropolitan area. The true highlight was reconnecting with college friends, and I do mean friends a bond that endures the test of time.

To this end, I went to college at a small liberal arts school in Northern New Jersey, William Paterson College (now William Paterson University). I can say, without reservation, the best formative years of my early life. The single biggest reason as I look back are the friends I made during that time. I have had thousands of acquaintances over the years, but very few true friends.

Out of the group, I was the one that made the sojourn west, was not good at keeping in contact as life happened and I lost touch. Let's think about that...losing touch. It's far more than not being in conscious contact...I lost touch with values that I learned being around my friends. The value of relationships, camaraderie, kinship. I reached out a few times over the years and reconnected on trips back east, just not often enough. True, social networks have made it easier to find people again...it did for me.

The point is, after decades of being apart, I was welcomed in their homes and lives as if only a day had passed. Though I may not have expressed it our shown it in my absence, I have a true, unconditional love for my college friends and always have. That feeling was never more solidified when we hugged and talked about our lives together and since. I have a new found commitment to continue our bond, along with a rekindled energy missing since that time in my life.

True friendships endure the test of time, give us the passion for life and a validation that we matter.

To my friends...my love