I have a confession to make, to you, the regular readers of The BG News.

I didn’t go to the Third Eye Blind concert. Some of you may recall that Friday in The Pulse I wrote about being a “semi-charmed” fan of the band who was looking forward to their show.

Call me a hypocrite. Say I lack school spirit. Truth is, I skipped it for the inspiration of this column: Friends – of the long-lost variety, the occasional contact type and the people I hung out with a couple of weeks ago. (For context purposes, it may be useful to know I am a first-year graduate student who graduated in 1998 from the University).

They all descended on Bowling Green for homecoming and unfortunately no one was willing to shell out $25 for Third Eye Blind (note for UAO, it should have been free or $12 and on Friday night). I did ask them though.

Anyway, we all know that college is a time for studying and preparation for a future career. But truly almost as important are the friendships you make while here. Your friends shape your social life, your support network and perhaps your professional contacts.

You meet them in residence halls, in your fraternity or sorority, at work or maybe in class – especially when you share a major and have class after class with them.

Homecoming this year was shaping up as kind of lukewarm, as of say last Tuesday.

The old fraternity buddies weren’t coming this year. Kids and grad school knocked a couple out. Another moved to the west coast. A few last minute phone calls to a couple of the “long lost” types weren’t returned (Punks!).

The apathy bred apathy: Locals dropped out because the others weren’t coming.

OK, so that left people with whom I used to work and share a major, plus a few others. There, the faithful crew was coming. This group meets a few times a year and comes from all over Ohio.

Then serendipity stepped in. Turns out an old classmate and co-worker (and now of the geographically close but in reality far away type friend) has a class next to mine. We’re working on master’s in fields far from our original major. He had seen me in the hall a couple of times and finally had a chance to talk to me last week.

First of all it was great to see Joe. We last had some beers a couple of years ago and fell out of regular contact.

He then told me mutual friends of ours were coming for homecoming, the first time in years. I was especially excited to see Penny. We had been like brother and sister our senior year. I still have a picture of her and I smoking inside a University building late one night.

Penny and I had remained in contact somewhat through the years. I lived in Cleveland, Tennessee and Toledo again while she was in Louisiana and then Washington D.C. We talked and e-mailed frequently right after college. Then things tapered off to dispersed calls and e-mails.

She was always too far away to come back for homecoming. I hadn’t actually seen her since the Browns came back and Third Eye Blind was still on their first tour.

Apparently this year was different. And she and another former co-worker and acquaintance, Kristin, were driving in from D.C.

So Saturday came and we all met up at an alumni tent where stories were shared and contraband food and beverages were consumed (sorry, Meijer). I also talked with the faithful crowd and the new additions.

Joe told me about his students and Penny about her new job. I learned that Kristin (the acquaintance) and I probably would have been great friends in college had we ever said more than “Hi” to each other.

Everyone had a great time as we tried to fight the crowds downtown and hit our old haunts. After waiting too long for a drink, I just stole someone’s beer at a bar.

A good time was had by all. And many promises to make it an annual event were made, as were promises from locals to make get-togethers a more regular occurrence.

Hopefully that all will happen and the usual crowd will expand.

This year, again, reminded me of how much work it is to stay in contact with college friends (I suppose the same can be said of high school friends too, but I think you will find they disappear much quicker). And also that these are the people you definitely want to stay close with. They know your hopes and fears – and how much you can drink before you puke.

Once graduation comes, everyone scatters to the wind. You have to call and e-mail often. Make plans to see each other and stick to them. You will meet new people at your job and in your neighborhood. But I have found, for the most part, I will never have as good of friends in later life as I did in college.

Another University friend of mine (one who didn’t come to homecoming) said she tries to be very vigilant about staying in contact with people. She makes a point to make phone calls, e-mail, send text messages and write letters.

“It’s something you have to work at, especially as the time goes by. I always tell people that if we fall out of contact, ‘it’s your fault,’ because I keep at it,” said Angela Polak, a 1999 University graduate.