Will You Be My Friend?

Remember when you were a little kid and all you had to do to make a friend was to walk up to a kid that you liked the looks of or who had a toy you liked and ask, "You wanna play?"   Done.   It was so easy then. You had built in friends in your neighborhood, your class at school, your church or temple.  It seemed that everywhere you looked there were potential pals all over the place!   Even in college, you had dorm life, clubs and classes to force you into friendships with your fellow students.

Fast forward to adulthood.  Things are much more complicated now.  First of all, most childhood friendships seems to revolve around the basic premise of Hey, I've got nothing to do, and you have nothing to do.  Why don't we do nothing together?  I honestly cannot recall the last time I had nothing to do!  Seems like I'm always rushing from work to home and back again.  And so are most of the other adults in the working world. So where does one manage to find friends?

I've been fortunate in my line of work to have stumbled across several colleagues who have become forever-friends.  I don't know if it's the stress of the job or the fact that you put so much of yourself into it, but the friendships that I have forged in this job have been deep and long lasting ones.  I've always said you have to be a little deranged to do the job that I do.  I guess the deranged nature of us all binds us together!  What ever it may be, I'm truly grateful for the friends that I have made.

The more I think about it though, the more I'm convinced that our difficulty in making connections and finding friends comes not from our lack of opportunity.  I think it's because we as adults are much more guarded that our childhood selves.  As kids, there's not a whole lot to hold back.  As adults, we have years of living that insulate us from those around us.  It's not easy to open up and bare all those scars.  Plus, we've been around long enough to have felt the sting of rejection and disappointment.  No one wants to open themselves up to that, so we don't.

I'm of the mindset that one can never have too many friends.  It's nice to have a wide variety of opinions and points of view.  Plus, with a large number of friends, you get to spread your crazy around, so it doesn't get too concentrated in any one place.  I think we should all pledge to make the time to make a new connection.  Put yourself out there; and who knows?  The person you connect with may become your new best buddy!