<p>how are those refined social skills working for ya?</p>
<p>Assuming that your definition of “friend” is as broad as most people’s (i.e. including acquaintances who you hardly ever talk to), it is not normal to go through life up until college without any friends. People tend to befriend you without you even seeking it out. </p>
<p>However, if in order to get close friends, that requires time and effort. If the person you are referring to spends his entire childhood and adolescence studying or otherwise holed up in his room, it would not be surprising for him to not ever have had any close friends. It is probably more common than most of us expect.</p>
<p>@crazyday: Ugh, not necessarily. You can talk to acquaintances and family.</p>
<p>You can’t have the same deep conversations about your life with acquaintances as you can with close friends. Hence, a “close” friend.</p>
<p>And I don’t know about you, but there’s a lot going on in my life that I can’t talk about with my family…or wouldn’t want to. It’s nice to grow up.</p>