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Unlike most people, I look back on my high school days with a great sense of fondness — from stationery shopping for colour-coded exercise books, to lining up at the canteen for my favourite sausage rolls. But if I had to pinpoint what made my high school experience so great, I think it boils down to the uninterrupted time we poured into cultivating and nurturing our friendships.
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On a random Thursday during fifth period, one of the girls in my friendship group would announce, "Frozen yoghurt after school!" and come 3.20pm, every single one of us flocked to the local shop to hang out, chat and laugh until we had to part ways on the last bus home.
Fast-forward to my twenties, and I wish someone had warned me just how fleeting that time in my life would be. These days, it's a miracle if all my friends are free within the same month, let alone on the same day. Of course I'm not naive — I know that with age comes a slew of responsibilities, priorities and clashing schedules. But I still stand by the fact that it takes a huge level of commitment to retain your friendships into adulthood.
If you're in a similar boat and can't take another "let's catch up" that amounts to nothing, Crcle is a new calendar syncing app that will do all the dirty work for you. And by dirty work, I mean collating your groups' schedules to find a mutual time that works best. Amazing, right? Better yet, it's free to use.
In addition, it also has a massive directory of venues in your city, so when you're syncing a mutual time, you can also lock in a place to meet. I like this feature because it prevents getting the dreaded last-minute "where are we meeting?" or "what's the plan today?" text, and someone having to scramble to figure it out. The app also has an in-built poll feature to vote on locations if your group has a bunch of competing personalities and you need to settle on plans. To save the hassle of having to make a group chat for any questions or banter, there's a chat function available in the dedicated event as well.
If you're already planning a reunion party, we recommend doing it ASAP because Crcle will pay you $1 for everyone who clicks 'attending' before May 15 to celebrate its app launch. Eight-person girl's weekend away? 50-person 25th birthday? 200-person DIY bush doof? Too easy. Interested? Download the shared calendar app here.
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