• They allow us to bond over common themes. Regardless of what your memories with another person are, spending time together reliving memories allows you to bond over common things, such as a memory of working your first job together, spending time on the basketball team in high school together, or being in the same wedding together.
• Take us back to happier times. Good memories can also be a great foundation for relationships because they allow you to relive happier, more carefree times. Think of how popular and how common high school reunions are--people enjoy them because it allows them to reminisce about shared experiences of a simpler, happy time in their lives.
• Make it easier to reconnect. Memories are a good foundation for a relationship because they make it easier to reconnect by providing common ground to talk about. Getting to know someone again through memories offers a way to open up the conversation and lead to getting to know someone better.
• Good starting point. Memories are a good starting point for a relationship even if you don't know the person. For example, if you grew up in the same city or state, you could share your favorite memories about popular hangouts or events at the time.

Here are a few tips for using memories as a foundation for relationships:

Take advantage of the Internet.
The immense popularity of social networking sites like Facebook, classmates.com, and so forth has made it easy to find people from your past that you can build relationships with. Many of these sites allow you to search by maiden name, high school graduation year, or employer, so you can find people using your own memory as well.

Use your memories as an opener.
Sharing a common memory is a great icebreaker and can lead to building a relationship. Whether you are reconnecting with someone in person or online, reminiscing can be a great way to start a conversation.

Don't rely on memories alone.
Memories are a great foundation, but they serve as only that--a stepping stone to build a friendship upon. Don't rely so heavily on memories and reliving that past that you neglect to build new memories. Use the memories instead as an in to start a relationship, and get to know the person for who they are now, not how you remember them years ago.

Focus on the positive.
Every relationship has memories that are good and bad. You might find it easier to build a relationship with someone by remembering the good memories rather than focusing on the bad.

Celebrate your memories.
Celebrating your memories is a great way to use memories as a foundation for building relationships as well. For example, use your high school reunion as an opportunity to get together with old friends and build new relationships with them by celebrating your reunion and going out to lunch.

Memories can be a great foundation for relationships, whether you are reconnecting with old friends you have lost touch with or you are making new friends.