friends
I keep getting more people on my friends' list. I love that.
And incidentally, that is on topic, because today's topic is friends. I read "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" the other day, and found it a bit hard to take. Not the story itself, it was sweet in a semi-Fannie Flagg sort of way, but the idea of Ya-Yas. Having three best girlfriends when you're eight and the same three sixty years later, no one added, no one taken away.
There's nothing wrong with holding on to old friends. I have a friend from Junior High that I still love having out with when she's around. But I get new friends as well. Lovers, yes that I can understand keeping the same for sixty years. Possibly. Wouldn't want to do it at this time of my life. But friends and family is a circle that IMO is supposed to expand. Just like my brother's girlfriend is closer to me than my aunt is, the people in my dorm are closer to me than the people I went to first grade with. If I keep a friend, it should be because that particular friend is worth keeping, and not because some club we made at eight is so damn special no one else is ever let into it.
The closest thing I ever got to a private club of friends was when I got confirmed at 13. We were twelve kids at summer camp, we called ourselves "The Apostles". Well, the next year we came back for reunion. There was another bunch of kids there. We hung out with them. Then there were siblings, and friends of friends, and new kids... nine years later, I keep somewhat in touch with half of the Apostles, and a lot more of the people who were added later. And I think that's the way it should be.
Sure, it could be said that I'm bad at keeping in touch, or that I'm a hedgehog who never lets anyone too close to me anyway. And maybe that close clique has things going for it that I'm missing out. But I don't care. I insist on switching pals with age and moods. Doesn't mean I don't love them.
And incidentally, that is on topic, because today's topic is friends. I read "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" the other day, and found it a bit hard to take. Not the story itself, it was sweet in a semi-Fannie Flagg sort of way, but the idea of Ya-Yas. Having three best girlfriends when you're eight and the same three sixty years later, no one added, no one taken away.
There's nothing wrong with holding on to old friends. I have a friend from Junior High that I still love having out with when she's around. But I get new friends as well. Lovers, yes that I can understand keeping the same for sixty years. Possibly. Wouldn't want to do it at this time of my life. But friends and family is a circle that IMO is supposed to expand. Just like my brother's girlfriend is closer to me than my aunt is, the people in my dorm are closer to me than the people I went to first grade with. If I keep a friend, it should be because that particular friend is worth keeping, and not because some club we made at eight is so damn special no one else is ever let into it.
The closest thing I ever got to a private club of friends was when I got confirmed at 13. We were twelve kids at summer camp, we called ourselves "The Apostles". Well, the next year we came back for reunion. There was another bunch of kids there. We hung out with them. Then there were siblings, and friends of friends, and new kids... nine years later, I keep somewhat in touch with half of the Apostles, and a lot more of the people who were added later. And I think that's the way it should be.
Sure, it could be said that I'm bad at keeping in touch, or that I'm a hedgehog who never lets anyone too close to me anyway. And maybe that close clique has things going for it that I'm missing out. But I don't care. I insist on switching pals with age and moods. Doesn't mean I don't love them.