I want to run the gammut from birth, to toddler roleplaying, to
   advanced toyplaying supported by fiction and the whole *world*
   of very real friends (who just happen to be on TV/in Legos/in
   books/in imagination) to the beginnings of awareness of one's
   own role as a social being (around 3rd grade it seems) and the
   beginnings of frenemies, bullying and those friends that really
   "understand" you, the growing stereotyping of individuals,
   reaching its pinnacle in high school when cliques are king and
   you *know* it's all BS yet you just can't seem to help yourself
   from using them too. In adulthood, these stereotypes usually are
   chopped up in to pieces and redistributed; there's "this what a
   friend does" stereotyped thinking, there's "this is what my
   hero-friend does". along with all of the media stereotypes of
   Housewife, Mother, Church-goer, and the friend-models
   exemplified by media stereotypes in all of their subtleties, and
   our friend-models that we formed when we were young that are
   unique to our own experiences. High expectations may come from
   someone seeing you as
   someone-who-is-like-your-friend-in-middle-school and what you
   imagine they would do. Sometimes with awareness, sometimes not,
   but that's the thing: We're friends with our imaginaries which
   are then compared/contrasted with real friends as we get them
   The real friends, as they go away, and live on as friends only
   in our memories, become the NEW imaginaries - the new prototypes
   with which expectations of future friends are based off of. All
   throughout life. That's my theory anyway. And given that we only
   *really* know what people show us and what we summize based on
   our past experiences with them and with others who are similar
   to them, they're still constructed friends. Constructed enemies.
   Constructed Husbands. Constructed Wives. And all perfectly real
   friends. Real enemies. Real Husbands. Real Wives,
   simultaneously. If you're _really_ lucky, you will manage to
   have friends who are exactly as they appear to be to you and no
   different. And you are exactly as they appear to be to them and
   no different. No less constructed and real, but with the rare
   friends like that, your construction of each other matches
   perfectly with each others behaviors. It's those rare people -
   even if they are enemies or frenemies as it were - that it's as
   if you really *can* read their minds, and they can read yours.
   As for the majority, well... mismatch. And the mismatch is
   entirely normal in its occasional awkwardness and
   disappointment.