Posts tagged with christmas.
holidays and fading high-school friendships
I attended my first Christmas party of the holiday season last week. It was with some friends I made in high school. I wore brown corduroys and a thick wool sweater. I sipped a nice glass of mellow red wine over polite conversation and nibbled on bruschetta, placed delicately on toasted French bread rounds. By the evening's end I noticed that I and my friends had seemingly aged four decades in four months. We lacked wrinkles, wrist watches and leather loafers but we were civil enough to be the image of adult decency.
I like to think our classy party is indicative of a blossoming maturity, a rejection of excess in lieu of responsibility. However, New Year's Eve will undoubtedly bring typical Bacchanalian indulgence.
What explains the classy Christmas party then? The Christmas party is made for conversation and catching-up. New Year's is made for downing too many beverages, vomiting on your friend's carpet and crying in the bathroom.
Maintaining friendships after high school is no easy feat. The list of people you associate with from your teenage years inevitably dwindles. Relationships diffuse over multiple area codes, interests shift and personalities change. If effort isn't expended, friendships are easily shed. You may still be friendly with the people you once knew, but you're no longer joined by steely bonds formed over the passions of youth. Like winsome Joe Jonas and his equally charming brothers.
The Christmas party is an attempt to reverse the downward trend. It's effective, much better than a list of never-contacted names on Facebook. It's casual. It isn't long enough to feel like an intrusion or an obligation. And by the end of the evening, you have a satisfactory feeling of having maintained something for another year.
Coming back on the train from my party, I sat across from a bespectacled man in his forties. We were wearing the same clothes: black coat, wool sweater, brown pants and brown shoes. He added a Santa hat. I imagine he was returning from a Christmas party of his own. I assume in a few decades that will be me, less the polyester Santa hat. I find polyester to be abrasive on the ears.
Tagged with
school,
years,
high,
parties,
new,
friendships,
christmas,
ian,
wylie
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