Facebook. Best thing since sliced bread. Or something like that. I have been on Facebook since 2004. This was when it first appeared and you had to have a ".edu" email address to join. The purpose was to stay in touch with your high school friends once everyone went to college. This was also when everyone's pictures and status' were of things you were doing in college -- that you probably wouldn't want your parents to know about.
Not too much time later, anyone with an email address was allowed to join. All of a sudden, the pictures and statuses got a little more PG as parents were becoming "cool" and creating Facebook profiles. Now, the whole world is on Facebook and some of us can't get off of it (I don't mean me, of course). Due to Facebook, I have been contacted by relatives that I didn't know existed (one from Denmark, where my family is from!), and found another person who shares my name. Facebook was truly a great idea!!
I have 436 Facebook friends, and of those, my favorite people to stalk - ahem, follow -- are my high school classmates. I still enjoy Facebook for it's original purpose. I love to see who is getting married, having babies, doing something incredible, and living vicariously through those who are single and having fun (I have a fun life too, just different than if I were single). I also enjoy when my classmates post comments on my statuses. I like to guess who will be the first person to comment, and once in awhile I am right. I also find myself writing comments on classmate's posts, who I may have never talked to in school, but I feel like I know them so well or have some special bond that I have to comment.
There are a couple of reasons that I think make me enjoy keeping up with classmates. First, we are all the same age and mostly in the same place in our lives. This means we may have a lot in common and are great for advice to each other. Second, and probably more importantly, we were in a sense all unrelated siblings. We spent up to 12 years with each other and some of us may have spent more time with our classmates than our actual siblings. We may all have different lives now, but at one point we were all very similar (though it may not have seemed like it at the time) and knew a lot about each other. Knowing where most of us came from helps us have more compassion for the downers in our lives and share happiness for the celebrations. Most of our personalities have not changed either and we "get" each other's posts...just like siblings would. Sometimes I even find myself thinking, "He/she is so funny/profound/etc. Why did I not hang out with that person more?"
So, to my classmates -- I am glad we are "Facebook" friends; thanks for letting me follow your lives :)
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