Stuck for good
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- 9 min read
Once classmates and childhood friends who lost touch, Cleveland State University students show how college can transform old connections into unbreakable bonds.
Written by Sage Colón
Zoe Revay wasn’t expecting to recognize anyone when she walked into class during her first semester at Cleveland State University in the fall of 2023. She was still learning the building, navigating the new routines and adjusting to the quiet pressure of starting over. Then she heard a familiar name during attendance.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh – I know Tony,’” Revay said. “I didn’t even know he went here.”
At first, they didn't sit next to each other. But when the class changed rooms and students reshuffled seats, Revay seized the opportunity. She moved to sit beside him, and what started as a cautious reconnection quickly turned into conversation – first about high school, then about classes and eventually about everything else. The familiar face that had once been part of her past became a steady presence in the middle of an unfamiliar college experience.
February 11 is National Make a Friend Day, a holiday that celebrates connection – whether it's meeting someone new or finding common ground with someone you already know. At CSU, many students arrive without built-in social circles, and friendships often form in unexpected ways. For Revay and Tony Pianeschi, friendship didn't begin with introductions, but with recognition – a reminder that sometimes, making a friend in college means rediscovering one.
Stuck by the past
For Revay, seeing a familiar name in a new classroom brought relief. For Pianeschi, it meant not having to start entirely from scratch. As they began talking more regularly, their high school familiarity grew into a stronger college friendship shaped by shared classes, overlapping routines and the comfort of not having to force conversation.
“It was nice to sit next to someone I already knew,” Pianeschi said. “You don’t have to force conversation, you can just pick up where you left off.”
Revay and Pianeschi grew up attending the same pre-K through 12th-grade school, where their last names often placed them near each other.
“Everything was alphabetical,” Revay said. “Our lockers were next to each other. We sat next to each other in a lot of classes. We’d talk in class and see each other in the hallways.”
Some memories from those early years still stand out – including sharing a locker in second grade and a pink Barbie sticker they still joke about today.
In school, their friendship was steady but casual. Revay remembers asking Pianeschi for help in math, while Pianeschi remembers simply always being around each other. But after high school, they didn’t stay especially close.
Now at CSU, their similar majors often place them in the same classrooms again.
“Last semester we had almost every class together,” Revay said.
Both Revay and Pianeschi say college has made forming friendships easier – in part because students are surrounded by people with similar interests and are choosing where to spend their time.
“In college, you’re around people who have similar interests,” Revay said. “Nothing is really mandatory, so you’re choosing to be around those people.”
For Revay, reconnecting also reinforced the value of friendships that have seen different versions of you.
“It’s nice to have somebody who kind of knows all versions of you,” she said. “Someone who’s seen you grow.”
Pianeschi said sometimes the hardest part is simply reaching out.
“If you don’t reach out to anyone, you won’t be able to have any friends or memories to look back on,” he said.
Now, their friendship is built not just on shared history, but shared experience – from growing up in the same small school to navigating college life together.
“We experienced a lot together,” Revay said. “Even if we weren’t super close back then, we were still there together. It’s fun to talk about now and get different perspectives.”
While Revay and Pianeschi’s friendship grew from rediscovery in a new place, Lily Hamilton and Tracey Reinberger’s story stretches back nearly two decades. Their connection didn’t start in a college classroom, but on a yellow school bus – and its most important chapter came years later.
Stuck by Choice
Lily Hamilton and Tracey Reinberger first met on a school bus.
It was the first day of kindergarten, and Hamilton remembers sitting beside Reinberger on the ride to school. By the ride home, Reinberger had switched seat partners – a detail the two now laugh about – but the connection had already begun.
“Well, we met on the first day of kindergarten,” Hamilton said. “We rode the same bus, and I sat with her on the first day on the way to school.”
Growing up, their friendship existed in pieces – sometimes close, sometimes distant, but always familiar.
“We kind of just went through elementary and middle school knowing of each other,” Hamilton said. “In fourth grade, we were really close when we were in the same classes. But that was my friend Tracey. I always knew Tracey.”
In middle school, they shared a friend group, lunches and small rituals that now feel like snapshots of childhood.
“My mom would pack bacon in my lunch just to give to Lily every day,” Reinberger said. “It went from bacon sandwiches to literally just a bag of bacon.”
Their childhood connection showed up in small, personal ways, too. While scrolling through her camera roll, Hamilton found messages between the two of them – including one where Hamilton told Reinberger she got braces and asked her not to tell anyone. It was a small detail, but one that showed how long they had trusted each other with parts of their lives.
Even as they shared band spaces, art classes and football games, their friendship stayed tied to proximity, rather than choice.
“We were so close when we were together,” Hamilton said. “But we never hung out outside of school.”
After high school, they lost touch almost completely.
Hamilton took a gap year and lost touch with most people from her hometown. Reinberger started college at Cleveland State University without knowing Hamilton would eventually attend CSU. Their reconnection came by accident – through a mutual friend and a simple plan to get coffee.
“I was definitely very nervous,” Hamilton said. “I hadn’t seen these people in a year, and I felt like I had changed a lot. But Tracey had always been a friendly face. I thought she would just be someone safe to have in my corner.”
They expected a polite reunion. Instead, they found something deeper. At first, they met in groups for lunch on Fridays. Then just the two of them. Then off campus. Then for hours at a time.
“I didn’t think we were going to become best friends,” Reinberger said. “I thought it would just be, ‘Let’s catch up sometimes.’ But it just…happened.”
Now, they describe each other as inseparable, as a friendship built not just on history, but on emotional closeness neither had experienced before.
“When I think of Tracey, I think of true female friendship,” Hamilton said. “We do all the fun things like sleepovers and shopping, but we’re also connected in really emotionally intimate ways.”
Reinberger agreed.
“Before Lily, I had never had such deep conversations with anyone,” she said. “It just happens naturally. We don’t even try, and we’ll just talk for hours.”
For both, their friendship represents safety and understanding.
“Tracey is a very safe person for me,” Hamilton said. “I feel like I can go to her for anything, and I know I’m not going to be judged.”
Now, their friendship shows up in both big and small ways – from road trips to quiet moments.
They’ve traveled together to Chicago and Hocking Hills and are planning a spring break trip to Puerto Rico with friends. On long drives, they share music, sit comfortably in silence and move through travel the same way they move through life – on the same wavelength.
“I feel very comfortable in silence with Tracey,” Hamilton said. “If we don’t want to talk, we don’t have to. We’re just good road trip buddies.”
Looking back, they see their friendship as something that grew slowly but intentionally.
“My advice is to be patient,” Hamilton said. “Connection takes time. We didn’t become best friends the first time we saw each other again. You have to put intention into it, but you can’t force it.”
Reinberger said reconnecting with old friends can create a type of bond that new friendships can’t always replicate.
“There’s something special about long-term friendships,” she said. “Someone who has seen so many versions of you and who knows where you come from. You can make new friends, but they won’t always have that same depth.”
While Hamilton and Reinberger found new bonds through shared interests and experiences at CSU, some friendships are built on a foundation that stretches back even further.
For Ben Hagarty and Nolan Spiegel, college wasn't the start of their story – it was the place where a childhood connection was reignited, proving that sometimes the best friendships are the ones you’ve known all along.
Stuck for life
The third-grade bus was full of chatter, laughter and the occasional groan of a long ride home – but for Hagerty and Spiegel, it was the start of something that would last a lifetime. Homeschooled until third grade, Hagerty slid into the public school routine and found an instant connection with Spiegel, a neighbor and soon-to-be best friend.
“Ben and I grew up in the same neighborhood, and he was homeschooled until third grade,” Spiegel said. “Then he came to school, we rode the bus together and just became best friends all throughout middle school.”
From there, their friendship became part of daily life.
“Every summer, we were at each other’s house every single day,” Spiegel said. “We just hung out forever.”
They played basketball and baseball together, rode bikes around their neighborhood and grew close not only to each other, but to each other’s families.
“As kids, we did everything together,” Hagerty said. “We were even involved with each other’s families. To this day, I still ask him how his family’s doing, and he asks me about mine.”
For both, the connection felt natural – something that never needed effort or explanation.
“We just got along really well,” Spiegel said. “You don’t have to try. Nothing’s awkward.”
Hagerty said even conflict never threatened their bond.
“I can’t really think of any times we actually argued,” he said. “We could get annoyed with each other, but it never changed anything. The thought of our friendship ending never entered my mind.”
Through middle school and early high school, they stayed part of a tight-knit friend group of four. But as high school went on, dynamics shifted.
“Our whole friend group was changing,” Spiegel said. “There were more people in it, people who weren’t necessarily my good friends, and that’s a lot of what caused us to drift apart.”
Neither said there was ever an issue between them personally. Instead, distance grew from circumstances – less shared time, group conflicts and life naturally moving in different directions.
“When you’re not seeing someone twice a week anymore, you drift apart,” Spiegel said. “The separation is louder when you were with each other all the time before.”
Both said that period came with complicated emotions.
“I felt a little guilt,” Spiegel said. “Like maybe I should have had his back more in some instances.”
Hagerty said he felt the absence deeply.
“I absolutely felt the absence of Nolan and the other guys,” he said. “It weighed on me a lot.”
By the time they both chose Cleveland State University, they knew the other would be there – but they didn’t plan a reunion.
That changed quickly.
“I remember when I first moved in, he texted me and said, ‘Hey, come check out my dorm,’” Hagerty said. “Then the rest is kind of history.”
Within minutes, the years of distance disappeared.
“After the first 30 minutes, it didn’t even feel weird anymore,” Hagerty said. “It was like we were back.”
The early weeks of college became some of their most vivid shared memories – long nights talking in dorm rooms, building new friendships and rediscovering the ease they had as kids.
“It was so simple, but so much fun,” Spiegel said. “Just sitting around, talking forever.”
Now, they say their friendship feels different than it did when they were younger – stronger.
“I think it’s stronger now than it was when we were younger,” Spiegel said. “A lot of that has to do with our faith. It’s the most important thing in both of our lives, and it’s brought us closer than ever.”
Hagerty agreed, saying their shared faith helped them become more open and supportive of each other.
“It’s helped us open up more and be there for each other in better ways,” he said.
Both said their friendship also challenges stereotypes about male friendships and emotional openness.
“I know a lot of friendships that only go surface level,” Spiegel said. “It’d be nice if more friendships went deeper. Guys need to do it more.”
Looking back, they said friendship – whether new or old – often starts simpler than people think.
Now, whether navigating college, making new friends or reflecting on past mistakes, their friendship provides a steady anchor.
“Most people want friends,” Spiegel said. “Do all you can to not overthink it and just go out and talk. One day at a time.”
For Hagerty and Spiegel, the lesson is simple: some connections are built to last – and sometimes, reaching out is all it takes to rediscover them.
As National Make a Friend Day on Feb. 11 is celebrated, the stories of Revey, Pianeschi, Hamilton, Reinberger, Hagerty and Spiegel show just how powerful friendships can be – and how they can start or grow in unexpected ways. Like glue, the strongest friendships are the ones that stick through time, distance and change. For many of them, college was the perfect place to reconnect with old friends or meet new ones, whether it was living in a dorm, joining a club or just sharing day-to-day experiences on campus.
From rekindled childhood bonds like Hagerty and Spiegel’s to the fresh connections Hamilton and Reinberger formed, these friendships remind us that showing up, being present and making time for people really matter.