In the middle of all the chaos of constant change, I’ve been lucky enough to remember that there’s still an 18-year-old in me somewhere still.

My son and step-son are both 18 and I’ve been watching them hang out with friends in the weeks after their high school graduations. I remember that time. It was the last hurrah for all things about high school. It was the last time I would see several friends. It was the end of sports practices, pick-up basketball games, playing broomball and hockey.

The summer after high school graduation included working a job at Shakey’s in Janesville. I was balancing meeting with my friends around my work schedule. I was planning to go to college in the fall. There was a lot going on, but the time with my friends was the most important.

When August came, and the move-in dates for college approached, out get-togethers became less frequent until September and we went our separate ways.

I was lucky to keep in touch with a core group of six guys from my senior class who have been my best friends throughout my life. Social media has made it so easy for us to talk daily. Share songs, gifs, memes, messages that only the six of us see. And sometimes we act like we’re still 18 when we’re together.

We’ve created an annual golf outing during a three-day period in September. We’ve gone to concerts and baseball games together. We’ve been in each-other’s weddings. We’ve gotten to know each-other’s children. It’s been a blessing.

Many people don’t have that with their friends after graduation. I had a graduating class of 469 people at Janesville Parker. On Facebook about 10 of those people are my friends. At one time I had Facebook contacts with more than 100 classmates, but after getting hacked in 2016 I realized I really didn’t have 300 people with whom I should be sharing my personal life. Not that I didn’t like people – it’s just how many people really need to see photos of me and my wife planting flowers in our front yard?

Now I maintain a Facebook page with 75 friends, who are mostly my family members. The true friends I’ve kept, and they are the people who I remember the most from growing up and have given me the most in life.

And when we get together, in a lot of ways it’s like I’m 18 again. I can’t act like it anymore, but it feels like it. That’s a good thing.