can sometimes seem like the only ones with whom kids can really talk. They're also at an age when, if they're fortunate, they often build very close relationships with a friend. The trouble is if that friend lives on the other side of town it may be difficult to get together and have "real" conversation. School often doesn't offer that opportunity. After-school activities don't offer it either. School lunch and three-minute walks between classes don't offer it. Neither does waiting for the bus for fifteen minutes with a bunch of other kids.

This is an age when primary school friends develop "eight-grade" relationships. It's an age, too, when kids outgrow earlier friends and start to build friendships that are based on having something in common other than the street on which both reside.

One of the best and most important things a kid in this age range can have is a close relationship with a friend or two; and one of the only ways to build that kind of relationship is sometimes by having long conversations. Further, besides building close friendships, long conversations between two young friends can help each young person learn who he is, what he believes, and what he wants to become through thoughtful conversations.

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My opinion about kids in this age range comes not just from having been the mother of three teens, myself, but also from my own experience as a young teen. In that long-ago time before "call waiting" was available, I remained a long-term and ever-present irritant in the life of my elder sister's boyfriend, who was not above calling the operator and saying he needed to interrupt my long calls with an "emergency".

At the time, my parents didn't care that I talked, because their calls were made during the day while mine took place during the evening (when other people watched television, in which I had little interest). Instead, I preferred to mull over "the meaning of life", my friend's and my views on the (then) "hot" topic, "premarital sex", what we thought made a good relationship, and just about everything else in life. Together, my girlfriend and I worked out our beliefs and principles through our long conversations, and our parents would have proud of the conclusions we reached on our own. Sometimes, of course, we just found silly things to talk about, and we rolled on the floors of our respective bedrooms in laughter.

With all the struggles and stresses of "learning to be a person", one of the best ways for kids to feel

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