Things A Changing

I've put off writing about this, because it's hard to really express it in any sort of concrete way. Because of the foot/feet injury, I've been progressively thinking about it more and more, so the right words are only really coming to me now. To put it simply: my friends, and I, are changing.

For the last 6 months, my circle of friends and relationships have been shifting. This change in paradigm isn't so much due to me, per se, but due to everyone who makes up my network of friends. Each person plays their own little part in this.

This sort of situation comes as no surprise to anyone older than myself. For those older folks (old being a relative word to my age of 23), they can look back and hopefully see that their personalities have changed from when they were in high school, to university/college, to fresh into the workforce and on. It's funny to think that at a given, immediate moment, you never really imagine that you will be different in 2 or 3 years: your preferences, your hopes and your interests. But that's just how living is. As you change, so do the things you do. Things you once had in common with others disappear, and it slowly (or maybe quickly) becomes obvious that you don't want to see those previous friends anymore.

So it comes down to my friends changing. Some brief examples would be that Tim and Xav have equally become indifferent to seeing Mike. Xav has actually openly said he finds most of our mutual friends to be very boring. Tim, in his part, has said that I'm probably one of his closest friends right now (which oddly enough unsettles me).

My worries start to kick in at this point in the thought process: and then there's me changing. I've noticed the number of people I would call-up to hang out one-on-one, without any second thought, is shrinking. Some people just don't interest me anymore; the lines of our lives are diverging. As Xav said, the love of some peoples' lives now disinterest me. I have many acquaintances, that I thoroughly enjoy seeing and having fun with, but I don't consider them good friends. To put it a different way: I have many Group Friends but fewer One-on-One friends.

To rectify this developing problem, I need to add some new connections in my network of friends. I don't need to strengthen some old/weak connections, but form new ones altogether. I need to meet new people, that don't already know my friends; fresh blood, if you will.

Over the next year, there may well be a change in my current good friends. Tim, you're great, but sitting around your uncomfortable apartment is boring. Kieran, you're awesome, but you need to actually go out at night some times. Xav, I always have the most original and fun times with you, but you need to try and be social with my friends. Alicia: leave Australia. Liz: stay the way you are. Mike: I still consider you a friend, but you are essentially just an acquaintance now.

This summer will hopefully see me trying new stuff and hopefully meeting new people.