The older I get, the more I like to stick with people I know. Sometimes it’s hard to venture out. Maybe it is laziness or being set in my ways, but I find it difficult to try and forge new friendships/relationships. It takes energy and pro-activeness to make new friends. Many times, I will meet someone new and make tentative plans to meet up again, but lo and behold, no one actually makes it a priority to come through with those plans. Unfortunately, I have seen it time and time again.
Plus, there’s something quite comforting about keeping to the friends who have known you forever. They knew you at a “more innocent” time in your life. Once you enter your 30s, it seems like the only friendships/relationships that you’ll seem to make are ones that serve a purpose personally (i.e., a business contact, etc.) But that doesn’t have to be the case.
However, you do have to go out of your way to build and make a new friendship. They’re harder to come by as you get older. You have to continuously nurture it and keep in touch, and send little e-mails or texts here and there; otherwise, you don’t really become close friends, but stay merely acquaintances. It is proximity and the day-to-day companionship that keeps a friendship warm, and with busy schedules and personal priorities, newer friendships are harder to keep and come by.
So, if you want to “make new friends, and keep the old,” you have to put yourself out there, plain and simple. You’ve got to network, and take yourself out of your comfort zone, even if it is easier to stay home and hang out and just be fine with the friends you currently have.
No Ugly Duckling 