>>18121195
That's legit most people. Only the weird people dont and those weirdos are the bulk of people who work in lower management and desk jockeys, people noone wants around. You're ngmi

>>18121195
For small towns and semi rural areas, also in red counties of the Midwest and South, being friends with people you went to high school with is the norm.

>>18121195
Look at mister smartypants here who went to college.

>>18121232
Nigger, im from Los Angeles and that's most peoples friends group. Maybe not in bumfuck zero socializing Vermont but it's literally the norm in LA and New York in my experience

>>18121195
college is full adulthood, and these people are studying literally like their lives depend on it because it does. In america getting into college and then simply passing is the most important thing. It just saying Berkely is what matters. Look at how samsung hires in SK and you will see that just Berkely isnt going to do it. College isnt a fun time to find yourself like in the US. But also hilariously college is where our education system is simply superior as now you are trying to convey advanced knowledge and beating your kid with a hockey stick just wont make them good at physics.

>>18121246
I'm from semi-rural Michigan and it was the norm where I lived. Everyone knew what everyone was doing after graduation and still hung out at each other's BBQs

>>18121246
It was the norm in semi rural Michigan. I still go to BBQs of the people I went to high school with.

>>18121302
>>18121305
And it's the same way in everywhere i've lived. Los Angeles, upstate New York, Orlando, Florida and Salt Lake City, Utah. It's incredibly common for alot of people you meet to still have a circle of friends they made in highschool. OP is just flat out wrong, i've yet to visit somewhere where people by and large dont have ties to friends they made when younger. That's why I assumed he was a desk jockey, only someone suited for corpo hell would think such was the norm

>>18121195
Japanese tend to have stronger "hometown" ties. So while they may move away for college/jobs to most likely Tokyo, their parents and relatives may still be in the hometown. Its tradition to return home for New Years and other festivals like Obon, so it's a good chance for even distant friends to reconnect. Parents are often friends with other parents or at least acquaintances, because it's a nosy thing for parents to use other parents to keep tabs on each other's kids. So gossip flows in both ways, and this keeps bonds together. Some westerners have this ("Oh, so and so is getting married/having their first kid"), but that really depends on the family network and relationships. Westerns also mostly replaced their social life updates with facebook, so I guess there's also that.

There's also the thing that college is generally seen as "easier" than high school in Japan, and really just a stepping stone to getting a job. So most people cruise through college, and there's no mandatory social interactions outside of clubs or socials, which can be daunting to enter for socially anxious. Once you get a job, you just have coworkers - who you may or may not hate - and mandatory drinking parties - which may or may not be for you.

Then there's also the sentimentality factor, which is pretty ingrained in Japanese culture, and Korean/Chinese as well. Japanese romanticize the "innocent" time before the real world, so the relationships built prior to this is much more pure and valuable than those built later, which can be more transactional. Hence, the childhood friend trope.

But honestly, might just be anecdotal experience. I've known Japanese who were loners in HS and didn't really come out until college. One married their childhood sweetheart. But generally, they like the idea idyllic, halcyon relationships.

>>18121195
For East Asians in particular, high school is the last gasp of individualistic expression that most of them get to have before becoming a permanent cog in the collectivist machine. As >>18121263 the entirety of life in Korea, Singapore, Japan, and China for students is studying intensely in school and after-school with cram schools to get high marks to get accepted into elite universities. High school for them is the point were they get to join clubs and be social and develop as people, before they have to begin real adult life.

>>18121195
people form closer bonds with other people after getting close to finishing brain development.
do with this info as you wish.

My best friend is from high school :3

>>18121195
I was born and raised in London and I have a group of 6 friends I've known since I was 12

>>18121195
Do they? And what about people in the west who don't go to university?

>>18121263
Academics like *you* are the problem. Pol Pot was a hero.

>>18121195
>Why do non-westerners form close bonds with people from highschool but westerners their bonds are formed in university? I told a japanese coworker I haven't spoke to anyone from highschool since I graduated but I still talk to my university friends and he found that odd and it was the complete opposite for him
I dunno, man. I'm still friends with someone I met in first grade, and another three people I met in high school. I speak to two people I went to college with, but don't hang out with them often due to distance. I also went to law school, and I speak with no one at all from there. Sounds anecdotal (on both your side and mine).

>>18121195
The only friend I hang out with is an ex-drummer for a band I was in around 2002 thanks to me putting a classified ad in the local music store. My parents kept moving me around and I wasn't popular in school (autism diagnosis) so I never had a real best friend growing up. I guess I actually have one other besides the drummer who met in 2016 and he's my best friend. He turns 50 next year. So yeah the "friends" i knew in high school didn't stick around and have no idea what they're doing these days. Last I heard they were running a food truck service.

>>18121195
Where do you get this info from? I do suppose being from the former Warsaw Pact I don't qualify as 'western' but for pretty much everyone I know, young or old, their tightest bonds were forged in high school. This includes myself, I couldn't care less about any of the people I met in Uni.
People make business partners in university, not friends.