Five years ago, Sara and I started languageofriendship.com to explore the concept of friendship and to inspire others to put friendship at the center of their lives. Back in 2021, nearly a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, getting together with friends was taking a back seat to health and safety concerns for many people. Social isolation and loneliness were reaching epidemic proportions. We wanted to remind people of the joy and the importance of preserving relationships and connections, and to provide creative ways to invest in friendships at that difficult moment.
The Covid-19 pandemic has receded into memory, but we continue to look for ways to prioritize friendship. The need for connection remains as important as ever. As we celebrate our 5-year anniversary, we’d like to share several themes from some of our most popular posts.
1. Just hanging out. As we started to emerge from the pandemic, I read and enjoyed Billy Baker’s 2021 book, We Need to Hang Out, which discusses how commitments in adulthood can make maintaining friendships challenging. Baker’s approach to creating unstructured times to hang out with friends inspired my post Hanging Out in which I wrote that connecting with friends doesn’t always need structure or planning, as sometimes the most meaningful connections are from simply being together without an agenda.
Similary, Sara shared in her 2024 post, Low Key Plans: “It’s important to remember that get-togethers with friends don’t have to require intricate planning.”
2. Friendship poems. Sara’s Poems About Friendship is one of our most popular posts. Famous poets and writers such as William Shakepeare, Maya Angelou, and Shel Siverstein have been inspired by, and curious about, friendship. The words of poet and mystic Rumi describes the unexpected and sometimes magical ways we connect as friends: “What draws friends together does not conform to Laws of Nature.”
3. Fitness and friendship. An early post in 2021 about the need to reconnect with others as we emerged from the pandemic, Walks With Friends, was inspired by my friend Dean Petralakis’ initiative by the same name that encouraged friends, business connections, and acquaintances to join him on his regular walks on the nearby Illinois Prairie Path.
When pandemic concerns faded, we had more opportunities for fitness with friends. Sara shared in her post Exercise Posse ideas for finding local running groups through resources like Road Runners of America and when the weather cooperates, how the Adventure Cycling Association can be a great resource for planning a bike ride with friends.
The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.
Audrey Hepburn
4. Remembering those we’ve lost. One of Sara’s most powerful and widely read posts was about the loss of her college friend Melissa on 9-11. She’s since written several post commemorating the great loss of lives on this tragic day back in 2001, and her reflections on how Melissa, “was a voice for others, as she “didn’t tolerate disrespect towards anyone,” underscored how the loss of how Melissa and the thousands of others killed that day impacts those who knew them, as well as those of us who didn’t.
I’ve written a few times about my parents, and how they both inspired my commitment to friendships and the value of unexpected friendships with those who have different backgrounds from our own. My dad’s lifetime bond with his childhood friend Jim Hagen reminds me of my own friendship with Sara, how we’ve managed to deeply connect despite our different cities, careers, and life events.
When my mom passed away in early 2024, I wrote about her longtime friendships, and the bonds she managed to create with the staff at the her senior homes, despite her inability to speak due to a stroke.
5. Our story. For me personally, I’ve found the chronicling of my friendship story with Sara to be among the most meaningful aspects of creating this blog. It’s inspired us to connect regularly by phone and text, and prioritize in-person meetups when we can. One of my favorite getaways was our visit to Cape Cod in early 2023, when we marked our 100th post with 100 Ways to Celebrate Friendship. We managed another special getaway in the fall of 2025 to Milwaukee, reveling in the spontaneity of the weekend as we explored this city together.
Thank you for joining us these past five years as we’ve explored the many facets of friendship. We hope you’ll continue with us on our journey!
Language of Friendship 
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