How to Find a Long Lost School Friend

Reunite with a long-lost school friends.

Renew an old friendship by seeking out that long-lost school friend. The Internet and the advent of social networking sites have made this task easier than ever. Use your super sleuthing skills to find your friend from the past, and rekindle that friendship that ended years ago. Reminiscing about old times just might inspire you and your friend to stay in touch and build new memories.

Instructions

1. Visit social networking sites, and search for your school friend by name. Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are often the easiest ways to find a long-lost friend. Facebook, in particular, can be a useful resource since it had more than 500 million active users worldwide in September 2010. (see Reference 1) Type your friend's name into the search bar, and see what comes up. You can narrow your search results by region, so if your initial results pull up too many matches, you can focus them by city or state.

2. Contact your school's alumni office to see what information it has on file. Many high schools and colleges keep a directory of their alumni to send them newsletters and reunion information. Ask your friend's alma mater if they have any contact information on file.

3. Contact your reunion organizer. If you have a high school or college reunion coming up, whether it's celebrating, 10, 20 or 30 years, find your reunion organizer, who should have up-to-date contact information for your graduating class. Even if your reunion was a year or two ago, the reunion organizer might have your long-lost friend's information on file, even if he did not attend the event.

4. Search high-school reunion sites for your friend. Several sites, like Classmates.com or Reunion.com, allow you to search your high school by its graduation year. If your friend has an account on this site, you can contact her through the website.

5. Search your hometown newspaper for your friend's name. Though it is possible that your friend has moved from your hometown, she might still be living there. If she got married, had a baby or simply made news, you can find information in the local paper. Though this might not provide you with contact information for her, it can give you important information like her married name.

6. Reach out to mutual friends. Just because you lost touch with your school friend does not mean your mutual friends did. Ask them if they have contact information for your long-lost friend, or search for them using the same method. These mutual friends might help lead you to your long-lost school friend.

References

• Facebook: Statistics

Resources

• Reunion.com
• Classmates.com