Day 1: Write about the last time you
connected with a friend.
When I was about 5 years old, my
parents moved to a new house. 3 houses
up the street was a family with a girl about 9 months younger than me. We became best friends. We were in and out of each other’s homes and
lives as if we were sisters.
I don’t know when or how the
friendship faded; but suspect it came with school. I was a grade ahead, plus she went to private
school for the first 3 years. By the
time we were in the same school, there was too much “distance”. But recently we reconnected. When there was a notice in the paper that her
father died, I sent flowers and put a message in the guest book. It took nearly 10 months, but she responded
to my message. We’ve emailed, friended
on FB, and had one lovely long phone conversation.
That was the most recent *real*
connection.
I’ve also recently acquired a new
pen-pal. I signed up through a epal
site, and she responded. We’ve written
each other every day, and have been surprised at how much we have in
common. So, the letter I received this
morning I supposed was the last time I connected with a friend.
Day 2: Where is your favorite place
to connect with friends?
I don’t think this is what the question
means, but I have to answer “online”.
Because I can’t get out of the house to meet up with friends … and have
never really done much of that anyway … my email and Facebook connections are
what are important to me.
Day 3: Do you think you still spend
the same amount of time connecting in the face-to-face world now that
socializing is so easy online?
I probably do, only because my
face-to-face socializing has been practically non existant anyway. I have more social contact online than I ever
did in the “real world”.
Day 4: Who do you
feel closest to in your life?
Right now I’m not
sure I feel “close” to anyone. Certainly
not my husband, due to severe health problems which include dementia. Not any of my siblings because we are rarely
in touch (although I’m abundantly overjoyed with I can get together with any of
them). I have a daughter-in-law that I
love dearly, and connect with; I have a girlfriend that I (mostly) enjoy being
with; but she also doesn’t really grasp what my life is like, so frequently
ignores me or lets me down. I really
just don’t feel “close” to anyone.
Day 5: Do
you think it’s easy or difficult for you to connect with people?
Clearly,
it’s difficlut. I’ve been shy since
grade school. In school it was horrible;
and for pretty much all of my school years I only had one close friend. The friend from my junior high days, and the
one from high school, have both died of cancer.
I’ve recently reconnected with my earliest childhood friend, but I
wouldn’t say we are “close”. Our lives,
while there are surprising similarities, have gone in vastly different
directions. Plus, while she lives in the
same state, it’s about 4 hours away.
At one
time I had a job as a tour guide. That
was the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life!
But I did enjoy it. After that I
had several different jobs dealing with the public. I did OK, but don’t handle stress very well;
and like a lot of people, I thrive on praise or compliments. In jobs were they were stingy with that, I
didn’t stay very long.
I spent
the last dozen or so years before retirement in an office. I made some friends there, but no one I was
very “close” to. None of them were
interested in keeping up a friendship (other than very superficial, as on FB)
after I was no longer in the office. I
was (am) still a bit on the shy side .. don’t talk to strangers easily … but
instead of trying to get to know me, some of the girls just branded me “stuck
up”. The ones I got to know seemed to
like me .. but like I said, only as long as I worked there.
Now? Well, I have some friends I made during my
year of being a chocolatier. I had to
quit that because of my husband’s health and my failing vision. Turns out those friends are pretty much just
superficial too. I rarely hear from any of
them; usually only when they have a new catalog or something.
I’ve used
an awful lot of words just to say I don’t make friends easily!
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