Do you remember making friendship bracelets? You know, the multi-colored string bracelets that you would pass out to all of your friends.
Or how about the silver and gold BFF heart necklaces?! The ones where you would take half of the heart and give your best friend the other half!
Looking back now, it seems like a cute but an incredibly silly and childish thing to do, doesn’t it?
BUT – on the other hand, I can’t stop thinking about how EASY it was to make friends as a kid.
In fact, I even remember making a “best friend” waiting in line at Dollywood one summer! We effortlessly chatted the entire wait time in line without fear of what the other person was thinking, trepidation of saying the wrong thing, or the anxiety of fitting-in.
Interestingly enough, what’s also ingrained in my mind is the memory of the two of us turning to our moms and saying that THEY should be best friends too!
Our moms thought we were cute. Laughed it off. And, continued waiting in line.
I keep coming back to that contrast though.
While I didn’t realize it at the time, I clearly see it now….the stark difference between my childlike experience and my mom’s adult experience is actually very telling.
Something happens as we get older that makes finding, cultivating, and keeping friendships much more challenging than it once was.
It’s probably a combination of things — being shaped by life’s experiences, building walls as a defense mechanism if we’ve been hurt, running a million miles an hour in different directions, finding ourselves in different seasons of life…
The longer the list becomes, the lonelier we feel and the more challenging we believe that friendships actually are.
BUT! Today’s guest nailed it when she said:
We have to stop believing that friendships are hard. Friendships are worth the work we put into them.
SO good!
Take a minute to let that sink in! And! Get a pen ready because you are going to want to take notes from today’s episode!
[…] How To Make Friends As An Adult With Jeanette Tapley […]