Thursday, July 15, 2010

Friendships

A while back I was talking with a friend about how much our friends and circles of friends have changed over the last little while. How we have been trying to hold on to friendships that we have had since we were 11 years old. Some of those friendships are very difficult and yet we try our best to make them work. She told me something that her boyfriend told her and it really struck a cord with me. 

He said something along the lines of "Look at my circle of friends. How many of them did I go to high school with or have known forever? Maybe one or two of them. Thats because when we are young our friends are chosen by location and convenience. As in our neighbours, or school mates. We didn't have a choice, now we do." 

This made a lot of sense to me. Especially since I have outgrown half of the people I was friends with in high school. Think about it, when we were 7 the only other kids we interacted with were the kids in the neighbourhood and the kids in our class. That's it. Those were our options. Now maybe some of those kids grew into wonderful people we actually have things in common with and should be friends with. But maybe not. Maybe we just stayed friends with these people because we thought we were supposed to. Its not like we had jobs at that age and met new people all the time. Its not like we had cars and could drive across the city to hang out with a new friend. We depended on our parents and our surroundings. 

I am 26 now. I have a world full of people I could be friends with. I opened my heart and mind to meeting new people and because I opened up I met amazing new friends through blogging and through work. Friends that I would do anything for and tell anything to. Friends I trust and admire and respect more than they could ever understand. Friends that I met because I stepped out of my comfort zone. 

Its an exhilarating feeling... 

4 comments:

Angela Tolsma said...

this is a great post. Has a very good point! thanks for sharing. Makes me want to be more open

Unknown said...

My best friends are all people I've known since high school. We didn't all get super tight until University though so I guess I have a little different perspective on things but I see your point.

I don't think it really matters where you meet/met your friends as long as they make you happy!

Anonymous said...

I feel the exact same way. I have 1 friend from high school. Now I have friends that I travel through states to visit.

Being open is great. Sometimes you get hurt, but we are old enough to learn from our mistakes and make better friends the next time. If you are happy with you hang out will, it doesn't matter if you have known them forever. Some feel like you have known them forever. And those are the keepers.

Leah said...

I like the thought that there is a whole world people out there that I could be friends with, but I choo-choo-choose you!

I love you Mich!