Today, I have made new friends.
It is the third year of my degree and I am in regular contact with a mere handful of people I knew from halls in first year.
However, it's not that my friendship group has shrunk by all that much, it's just shifted somewhat. I still know about the same amount of people, it's just a lot more spread out, all from different connections. The way it happens for most people is that hall mates turn into housemates, and coursemates are a separate group. Sometimes they coincide, but often people living in the same house will tend to study a variety of courses. This is great from an opportunistic point of view, you can meet so many more people this way.
Now, getting closer to certain people means you're more likely to meet their other friends, too - it's a chain reaction until you can get to the point where you're not really sure of the link between you and this friend, but it's somewhere along the six degrees of separation.
Friends come and go - we shake a hand and sometimes we hold on to it for a while. But in the dos-a-dos of dancing along life's path, we might find other partners to link arms with, and we lose grip on the first hand. Sometimes we're only meant to move together for as long as the beat of the song, the pulse of the moment and after that, our time as friends is done. Maybe one day our eyes will meet again and we can say fine, thanks, how are you, and then we can merrily move along. Maybe you'll reminisce together in years to come, or maybe they'll forget where they know you from. Either way, they'll have had an effect on you once upon a time and it's okay that it's nothing more than that, cause there's always more friends to be made today.
It's exciting times.
It is the third year of my degree and I am in regular contact with a mere handful of people I knew from halls in first year.
However, it's not that my friendship group has shrunk by all that much, it's just shifted somewhat. I still know about the same amount of people, it's just a lot more spread out, all from different connections. The way it happens for most people is that hall mates turn into housemates, and coursemates are a separate group. Sometimes they coincide, but often people living in the same house will tend to study a variety of courses. This is great from an opportunistic point of view, you can meet so many more people this way.
Now, getting closer to certain people means you're more likely to meet their other friends, too - it's a chain reaction until you can get to the point where you're not really sure of the link between you and this friend, but it's somewhere along the six degrees of separation.
It's exciting times.
On the jukebox: Take That ~ Never Forget
"Friends come and go"
ReplyDeleteOn the whole, yes. But I'd like to think there are a few people that I'll keep some sort of touch with, and class them as "friends" rather than "someone I used to know". Be that through occasional eContact, or regular real-world time. It's so easy to keep touch with people through the Interconnected Interwebs, that there's no reason not to keep in touch, if ya want to.
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteUnderstand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
It's just I don't feel I need to keep everyone within arm's reach and that it's okay to let go of some people when it's clear that what you once had in common is no longer applicable...