Maybe it started over a burger at the Spa. Maybe you met in a class and continued a discussion on the way to the library. Maybe there was a ski weekend with common acquaintances. Maybe you were roommates.
Colby friendships have many origins, but the thing they have in common is the College itself. It is the great meeting place--the venue for developing friendships that can last a lifetime. No great college would be great without the legions of alumni whose collective memory and joint perspective give meaning to its traditions--which are rooted in their shared experience. After the classes are forgotten and the knowledge stored away, friends remain a tether to the place where adulthood began; a reminder of how good those years were.
But life manages to cleave space where there once was none. Distance, time and changing lifestyles can gradually erode the relationships that were easily maintained when "getting together" meant walking down the hall or across the campus. College friendships that become long-term friendships take work.
The degree to which Colby friendships endure seems, if not extraordinary, certainly unusual. Colby alumni have taken the time not merely to stay in touch but to remain part of each other's lives, defying the transience of careers and hometowns to forge even deeper ties.
There is one group of Colbians for whom friendships are particularly profound. They speak almost reverently about their time together; at once wistful and grateful. Not just friends. Friends for life.