You could not pay me enough to go back to middle school. Well, that's not true. I don't think I could say no to being a billionaire, even if it meant dealing with puberty all over again.
But as awful as that time in our lives could be, what with the awkwardness and the acne, there is one aspect we took for granted — making friends. It was natural to talk to each other, stuck listening to some awful teacher or eating horrific cafeteria food together. It was easy to find things in common — NKOTB good; riding the bus bad.
Sure, there was bullying and drama, but surviving that with your core of friends only strengthened those relationships. You rode those into high school and maybe even college, adding more along the way.
If you were truly fortunate, you had that one BFF who had your back through it all. And if that's the case, you are likely still close in a way that defies distance or schedules. However, life happens to us all, and maintaining even the best childhood friendships can be difficult.
Most of us grow up and get jobs and create families and slowly lose every ounce of free time or desire to put on pants and leave the house after a long day. But after 20 years or so, even the most disastrous of us get a handle on the whole adulting thing and find ourselves wanting to reengage the fun in life.
The problem is, how do you make real friends as an adult?
Maybe you have coworkers you can tolerate outside of the work environment. I have heard this is possible but not likely. I wouldn't really know because I have almost always worked remotely. (It is best practice to isolate your writer from the rest of your employees lest their idiosyncrasies become contagious.)
I found myself in this very predicament a few years ago. I wanted to go and do, but I was tired of doing it alone.
It is my experience that when a girl finds herself in this sort of vacuum, men will throw themselves into it with the misguided belief that they are everything. The problem is a narcissist only makes a vacuum lose more air.
Sometimes, however, these men leave treats in their wake in the form of people you meet through them. And sometimes, these people are everything.
I was blessed with just such a gift recently and have forged amazing friendships with phenomenal people. My life is radically different — I am different — because of these people, and I could never possibly convey my gratitude.
I mean, I could try with expensive trinkets or bottles of Pappy Van Winkle, but I am not a billionaire, as noted at the start. Nope. Become friends with a writer, and you get words. Written words and inappropriately spoken ones that drip with sarcastic humor. Enjoy your spoils. I love you.
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