I have a friend group for 25 years, I will be 33 this year.
It’s always sad to read replies to posts like these with people saying they have no friends.
And since I am a guy I can literally not talk to some of them for months and just literally pickup where we left off and talk for hours without it feeling awkward, forced whatever
I have my group of friends from literally middle school. My circle from college. Small group of friends from my internships, some coworkers I’ve kept in contact with who visit every so often. We all keep in contact. Some more often than others. Sometimes life gets in the way for months/years, sometimes we don’t get along and fight, but we always, ALWAYS make it up in the end, learn from what got us butting heads in the first place, and pick right back up where we left off like it never happened in he first place.
This isn’t meant as a brag or anything; I feel incredibly lucky, fortunate and grateful to be surrounded by so much unconditional love. And I always feel so sad when I see comments from people who are going through life solo. Life is a harsh mistress, and I couldn’t imagine going through it by myself. The relationships I have with others make it much easier.
I know it sounds cliche, but keeping your heart open, understanding that others will be different from you (which means you can always learn something from them), and being forgiving even under the toughest of situations is what powers me each and every day.
If you’re reading this and looking for a sign to change, well this is your sign. Go join the yoga class, keep an open heart with your coworkers, maybe text that friend you haven’t spoken to in years. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. Life is so much better this way, I promise.
I’m in my 40s and have multiple long-standing circles of friends going back decades (each with their own group chat). I even made new friends recently through channels other than my existing friends (started going to local fighting game community events).
I definitely feel bad for the people who talk about having very few or even no close friends and seem to frame it as some kind of inevitability that comes with adulthood. Life without my friends would absolutely be a lot worse.
Agreed. I couldn’t imagine life without the unconditional love and support my friends give me.
Some folks feel that they need to go through life alone. It doesn’t have to be that way! Open up your heart and meaningful relationships will start filling your life before you know it. I promise!
Just using your post as a springboard to get all 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
but I wonder how much of the idea of “women’s friendships decay, men’s friendships can pick up exactly where they left off” is based on reality… And how much of it is just a stereotype based on social norms that are no longer true. Y’know, like the idea that “women have naturally better emotional intelligence” (the reality is that most young boys were and on some level still are discouraged from engaging with emotions in general, and it’s hard to get good at something with no practice)
I can’t even cite personal anecdotal experience as an argument for or against because my friendship group is mostly queer dudes with the occasional transgender chick or enby person.
I think women have naturally better emotional intelligence and I don’t think it’s because boys are told not to be emotional. I think women just see things that men don’t
It doesn’t apply in my case. I’m a woman and I have a female friend (former coworker, she’s moved back to NI now) who I can just pick up with where we left off. She forgot to install telegram for almost a year on her new phone so I had to text her to remind her I exist, and we just went back to chatting like nothing happened. I’m autistic and she’s a bit weird, so I don’t know if that affects anything. But we can go a few months without chatting and it doesn’t matter. In my case, if someone is important/significant to me, then it doesn’t matter if a few months go by. Same with the few relatives I get on with. If we’re talking several years, then yeah, people change, grow, move on.
I have a friend group for 25 years, I will be 33 this year.
It’s always sad to read replies to posts like these with people saying they have no friends.
And since I am a guy I can literally not talk to some of them for months and just literally pickup where we left off and talk for hours without it feeling awkward, forced whatever
Yeah same here. Turning 30 soon.
I have my group of friends from literally middle school. My circle from college. Small group of friends from my internships, some coworkers I’ve kept in contact with who visit every so often. We all keep in contact. Some more often than others. Sometimes life gets in the way for months/years, sometimes we don’t get along and fight, but we always, ALWAYS make it up in the end, learn from what got us butting heads in the first place, and pick right back up where we left off like it never happened in he first place.
This isn’t meant as a brag or anything; I feel incredibly lucky, fortunate and grateful to be surrounded by so much unconditional love. And I always feel so sad when I see comments from people who are going through life solo. Life is a harsh mistress, and I couldn’t imagine going through it by myself. The relationships I have with others make it much easier.
I know it sounds cliche, but keeping your heart open, understanding that others will be different from you (which means you can always learn something from them), and being forgiving even under the toughest of situations is what powers me each and every day.
If you’re reading this and looking for a sign to change, well this is your sign. Go join the yoga class, keep an open heart with your coworkers, maybe text that friend you haven’t spoken to in years. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. Life is so much better this way, I promise.
Why is it sad? It is just modern fact of life that each person is alone.
Children still starving is also a fact, doesn’t make it not sad.
I’m in my 40s and have multiple long-standing circles of friends going back decades (each with their own group chat). I even made new friends recently through channels other than my existing friends (started going to local fighting game community events).
I definitely feel bad for the people who talk about having very few or even no close friends and seem to frame it as some kind of inevitability that comes with adulthood. Life without my friends would absolutely be a lot worse.
Agreed. I couldn’t imagine life without the unconditional love and support my friends give me.
Some folks feel that they need to go through life alone. It doesn’t have to be that way! Open up your heart and meaningful relationships will start filling your life before you know it. I promise!
Just using your post as a springboard to get all 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
but I wonder how much of the idea of “women’s friendships decay, men’s friendships can pick up exactly where they left off” is based on reality… And how much of it is just a stereotype based on social norms that are no longer true. Y’know, like the idea that “women have naturally better emotional intelligence” (the reality is that most young boys were and on some level still are discouraged from engaging with emotions in general, and it’s hard to get good at something with no practice)
I can’t even cite personal anecdotal experience as an argument for or against because my friendship group is mostly queer dudes with the occasional transgender chick or enby person.
I think women have naturally better emotional intelligence and I don’t think it’s because boys are told not to be emotional. I think women just see things that men don’t
ok
It doesn’t apply in my case. I’m a woman and I have a female friend (former coworker, she’s moved back to NI now) who I can just pick up with where we left off. She forgot to install telegram for almost a year on her new phone so I had to text her to remind her I exist, and we just went back to chatting like nothing happened. I’m autistic and she’s a bit weird, so I don’t know if that affects anything. But we can go a few months without chatting and it doesn’t matter. In my case, if someone is important/significant to me, then it doesn’t matter if a few months go by. Same with the few relatives I get on with. If we’re talking several years, then yeah, people change, grow, move on.
Same here, not a chat for that many years though