The Trick to Keeping Friends as We Get Older

It’s Hard to Maintain friendships and make new ones but it’s crucial.

*This article originally appeared in November in the Wall Street Journal.
By Diane Cole

Two or three times a week, Alan J. Fink, 64, the owner and manager of a box business in Baltimore, listens as his mother wishes out loud that she had good friends to go out with. That is worrisome for his mother, who is 88—and for himself. “I don’t want to be in her position in another 20 years,” Mr. Fink says. He frets that his circle of friends should be wider, “so that, down the pike, we’ll all be available to each other—if and when we need each other.” A growing body of data confirms that friends are essential to our medical, psychological and social well-being as we age. Yet many people find it difficult to maintain their circles of friends as they grow older. “It’s not that we’re deliberately neglecting our friendships,” says Ryan Hubbard, principal at Hinterland Innovation, a Melbourne, Australia, company that researches friendship and social innovations for modern enterprises. Losing friends, Mr. Hubbard says, is often more a function of our lives being complicated.

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Penn State's Gritty Gunslinger Bids Farewell

The guy has been winning since he was in diapers." -James Franklin

Trace McSorley, Penn State's fifth year quarterback out of Ashburn, VA. and the rest of the Nittany Lions put together arguably their most complete performance of the season with a 38-3 victory on Senior Day over the Maryland Terrapins. The Penn State quarterback went out with a bang, scoring two touchdowns with his legs. McSorley leaves behind a legacy of being Penn State's all-time winningest quarterback. But the Senior Field General hasn't forgotten all that Penn State has given to him. Click read more for the quarterback's reflections.

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