<p>I always hear so much about having close relationships with your instructors and yet I so seldomly run into stories where the professors/instructors and the students are actually, you know, friends.</p>
<p>I have several professors with whom I am on good terms, who I ask for recommendation letters or get unofficial advising from, with whom I do research, with whom I will discuss material and vaguely related tangents, or maybe chat a little about trips or families. These are professors who I generally think of as good people and are on good terms with. </p>
<p>But I only have one instructor who I would consider (hopefully!) truly a friend, who will write, two years post-class, to tell me in vivid detail about her vacation because I asked and always do; who wll call me by a nickname just because; to whom I sent my favorite book as a birthday gift which turned out to be something she wanted to read anyway; who will tell me about her husband, their anniversary, and their first date; who will care [or at least pretend to] about how I am doing, what I am doing, what guy I am dating; who, even if she doesn't have time to actually write anything substantial, will occasionally write just to check in and tell me that she still reads my emails and thank you for sending them; who can make me smile if just because something she writes/does is so <em>her</em> [and vice versa, I'm sure]; who speaks in "we"s (i.e., "we're such small town girls...") even though she is a decade and a half older, is ABD, is married, and used to be my professor, and thus we are far from equals; who tells me of running, complains about the weather, randomly talks about ping-pong, about whom I know so many random things [and vice versa]; who I miss dearly even though I almost never talked to her when she was my instructor and lived in the same state; who can see me at my worst and yet somehow still think I'm "great". </p>
<p>You know, just really good friends... Or at least that's how I'm reading it; I could be totally off... </p>
<p>Is it all that common to have professors/instructors become your friends? This friendship has always seemed very special to me and very fragile, because it is so improbable and yet has come to mean a lot to me... </p>
<p>But perhaps this is more common than I think, not that rare at all? I do go a larger school--maybe this is a LAC norm?</p>