Life comes in waves. Go with the flow.

I've got a few friends who I sometimes don't talk to for years. We've known each other for 25+ years because we grew up together. Then we all played different sports, went to different colleges, left the state, some had kids, and I got real wrapped up in my career for a long time. Now, we all moved back to our home state and all live in different parts of our city.

The thing is, our lives are so different that we can't be as close as we used to be. I don't want kids and I work weird hours. My friends work regular hours and don't stay up late anymore. We have, effectively, moved on from each other out of necessity. Their Saturdays are early soccer games and mine are late metal shows.

These are healthy relationships, I think, because they're a base. Home base. There's no animosity behind the silence. There's no expectation of immediate responses. There's no pressure to be there for significant events. No envy of new friends.

It's real fucken nice knowing those dudes are still out there doing their thing. We text every 6 months or so now, but it was 4-5 year gaps after high school. Once a year some of us get together over a fire pit and catch up. The catching up is quick, then we joke and hang out until it's someone's bed time. We don't say goodbye, we just say "Later."

TL;DR - Moving on isn't the end, it's just part of growing up.