Old Dog, New Friends?

I just got done having a conversation via text with a new friend.  Someone I just met and am still getting to know.  If someone had told me years ago that at my age, (in my 30s) I'd still be meeting new people and making new friends, I'd have been shocked.

I guess I always thought that after college and my first job, I'd have a set of friends that would stay with me through the years.  And while this is somewhat the case (I still talk with my college roommate for example), I find myself always looking for opportunities to make new friends.

Being self employed makes lunches out and water cooler time difficult if not impossible so all of the small, inconsequential relationships you have in an office environment fade away quickly once you leave it.
I have to go out of my way to meet someone for lunch, and there is a formal plan involved well in advance.

I know that you change as a person as you get older and I know that I have indeed changed.  However, a number of my relationships didn't make these necessary changes with me.  I'm more open, honest and caring than I was in my earlier years and my relationships reflect these changes now.

I love it when I can meet new people, find out about them and potentially develop a friendship based on a common theme, hobby, etc.

Very recently, I met another organizer who I'm very much enjoying getting to know more and more as the weeks go by.  Although I KNOW a lot of other organizers, up to this point, I haven't made a lot of organizer FRIENDS.  I was also just introduced to someone else my husband knew in high school who shares my love of running.  I look forward to getting to know her more and possibly doing some runs together.

Ironically enough I've found some friendships from relationships that have faded away.  I've made it public knowledge that I had a rough summer last year and it resulted in the ending of some relationships I found very special to me at one point.  However, due to the ending of those friendships, I've found others that are equally fulfilling, if not more so.  So when God closes a door, he opens a window...just look for the window.

I've also really enjoying talking to a lot of the people I've met on this blog, other blogs and Twitter.  Although I may not hang out with these people over coffee, I get to share the joys in my life with them and vice versa.  Its a wonderful, quick way to connect and reconnect with people.  (I even chat with someone I went to high school with almost daily now.  We grew up in RI.  I live in CT now and he lives in California!)

And so I'm not ashamed, but proud to announce that I'm always looking for new friends.  I have resisted the urge to email the nightly lifetime show anchor asking her to be my friend but that's a whole other store for another time.

So while you may love the friends you have, be open to what and who are out there.  And when you open your life you will be amazed at the vibrance and life that new friends can breathe into it.