Hitting My Stride (Part Two) |

Hitting My Stride (Part Two)

I think one of the most important parts of finding friends is learning to adjust your perspective on friendship. Through high school, college, and graduate school the way you interact with your friends is so different from life after school. In college, you spend all day with them. You can call them up and just ask them to come over, lay on your couch and watch bad tv. You don’t have to make plans, because they just happen naturally. You do homework together, you eat together, you drink together, and sometimes you even have sleep-overs because you’re too lazy to go home.

In post-school life, it’s not that simple or convenient. You have to make the effort. There is a much more structured style to friendships. It’s double dates, it’s planning to go to events, it’s asking someone to do something more than 5 minutes in advance. We all have planners and schedules, we all have conflicts and things that have been on the books for months. It takes work and commitment. And if you aren’t willing to do those things, well, then you won’t have those friends.

The key to it all, though, is just waking up and realizing that you can make it happen. That getting a planner and calling a friend a week or two in advance is really not that hard. That actually, it’s pretty nice to be able to look at the month of February and be able to count out six times that you get to see your new & old friends and the month hasn’t even started yet. It’s really just about growing up. And being okay with what that means.

I’m 27. I’m not old. But I’m not in college anymore, either. I’m going places. I’m meeting people. I don’t have to have it all figured out. But for me to be happy, I sure need people in my life that will help me figure it out as I go. Or just listen to me as I sort through it all.

And if they aren’t going to just fall in my lap anymore, then I guess I’ll go get them.