I think the biggest thing that I took away from last week was the reminder that sometimes, the people around you are not the ones you chose, and thoughts of what does it mean to be a good friend? I've heard people say that you ought to love the ones that you're with, if you cannot be with the ones that you love. It's not always as easy as it seems.
There are times when forced proximity can create impressions of emotional closeness. It's not always that way but sometimes it is true, because that's how we cope. When you can either play nice or be caught in perpetual awkwardness, the choice isn't one that's hard to make. Even within that, though, there will be people with whom you are closer to, who you would have chosen to love even if you were not forced to be around them.
I think that's why I say that you can make life-long friendships once you're in university. It provides such a vast sea of people from which you can pick and choose your friends, the people who you want to spend time with outside of classes. Of course, university is not the only place that you can make these kinds of friendships, but I feel like there is a smaller level of forced proximity than in places like work or high school, particularly if you were in a class like mine which never changed students. Once you commit past the superficial levels of similar interests and choose to connect with people on a personal level, the relationship tends to last longer.
That's why it doesn't matter that sometimes I am disappointed or resentful of my friends not living up to my (high, and often silent) expectations. It doesn't matter that sometimes I feel like I am no one's best friend, closest confidante, favourite. What does matter is that I do love the friends that I have and that I do want them in my life. What does matter is that not being someone's "best friend" doesn't mean that they don't want me in their lives.
Friendships change, fact of life, whether they be new ones or old ones. Every friendship is a little different, even if elements of similarity ring through them all because they're rooted in two separate people. There are some friendships where you must give the utmost care, if not always the consideration. Others pass quietly in the background to wither away, if you haven't figured out how and if you can give them what they require, while still others can re-emerge as strong as ever when you reach for them.
I'm not sure how to be able to tell which friendships fall into the kind where you talk frequently and share just about everything, and which are the ones where you talk infrequently, but always with depth and feeling. Always with feeling. Everything with feelings. Because that's how things work around here. You all know I have a whole bunch of feelings.
These few days away made me realise that there are more people than I would've originally thought who I'd count among my trustiest, truest friends. There are more people that I believed that I'd feel comfortable talking to about my fears and thoughts and insecurities; more people than I believed that I'd feel comfortable being stupid and silly around, teasing and touching and being ridiculous. There are so many people who I feel so grateful to know now, but most particularly those who I don't feel like I have to feel uncomfortable around. So, thank you for that, I guess. For being you. For letting me feel that I don't have to hide so much from you. I may or may not see you every day or talk to you the most often but I chose to love you, and I am thankful for you.
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