Do you like me? YES / NO / MAYBE

One of the best friends to have is the one you met in elementary school and somehow managed to survive the playground, puberty, and high school cliques together.  

Jaime and I met in third grade, when our assigned desks were next to each other and she asked if I wanted to work on my poster on the floor with her. We've had our fights, of course, and there were some times when middle school drama caused us not to talk for a few school years.  But we made it through that, plus everything else life has thrown at us.  As kids, we helped each other deal with cute boys who wouldn't talk to us, period mishaps at school (trial & error taught us to bring spare tampons in our backpacks...), and that super hard chemistry test.  Now that we're adults, we've gone through painful breakups, family deaths, and learning to juggle finances together.  

We moved to Milwaukee at the same time (we grew up just outside the city), but I've since moved out of Wisconsin.  I'm SO glad there's texting, video chats, and of course Facebook to keep us in touch!  It's hard to talk on the phone and multitask, so I don't know how we'd stay this close without technology.  

But the other night, we decided to go old school - literally.  We each popped open a bottle of wine, dug up our "Boy Box", and called each other.  We spent two hours on the phone going through old notes we wrote each other, letters to boys, pictures of our boyfriends, and our high school diaries.  It was amazing to read about our day, the way my crush waved to me in the hall, the "ridiculous" amounts of homework (THREE worksheets to read in ONE night?! How could they??), and where we saw ourselves in the future.  I love having a box of memories to look back on, no matter how technology changes.  

Then I had a sad thought: What will today's kids look at in 10, 20, or 50 years?  Texting has taken the place of passing notes, and when you get a new phone, you lose those messages.  How are they going to call their lifelong best friend and laugh about previous crushes or the creepy study hall monitor?  Technology is great for keeping in touch now, but I hope when my kids are in school, they'll sneak notes to their friends in the hall the way we did. 

This high school diary has some magical gems... most of which I'm too embarrassed to share!
Have texting and social media replaced this keepsake? 

Since the technology is there... might as well follow me on Twitter! @KaciKruz