A whole new adventure
I used to be the kind of guy who kept to himself mainly for two reasons, the first being the kind of family I came from and the second was me being extremely shy. Although I believe the second reason was strongly influenced by the first. I grew up in a family where my dad did his best to kinda isolate us from the people in our environment when growing up, and this was because of the area we were staying at the time.
There were a lot of thugs and just people that could influence a child negatively in a huge way in that area, so he tried his best in seeing to it that we weren't corrupted by this people and in order to do that, there were times where we (me in particular) had to stay on our own.
Although it worked and we were in our best behaviors in one of the craziest places where one could raise a child, it had its own effect on us, and on me the most because all of my brothers turned out fine. I believe that amongst the four of us, I was the one who got affected the most, probably because I spent the most time at home with my parents why the rest of my siblings were out there doing something to keep themselves busy.
Anyways, all of that messed up the way I related with strangers and it wasn't a problem at first, until I got into school and had to really relate with people to do certain things. I remember my first day in school and how much of a nightmare it would have been for me if my brother wasn't also a student of the school at the time. He had been the one who helped me ask around in order to locate my department.
I remember thinking to myself that day how I would have coped if it was just me. Of course I would had eventually figured out a way to ask someone for directions but it would have taken a lot of encouragement and motivation from myself to myself.
Well, luckily for me, things seem to be taking a different turn for me this year. For long I've been trying to overcome this fear that I get when it comes to approaching strangers and making new friends but it seems like the older I get, the more I realize that there really is no big deal in striking a good friendly conversation with anyone, irrespective of their gender.
So although I love having lots of friends, I still do find it hard making new ones but compared to the past, I'm doing a whole lot better now. And if you ask me why I would want to have a lot of friends, I really don't have a good solid reason to give, I just love meeting new people and that is because I know that when you meet someone new, it's like starting a new adventure for yourself because you don't know what kinda things that friendship could lead to.
It could either be good things or bad things.
hmmmm I'm the opposite i dont love having a lot of friends but then again it depends on the level of friendship we talking about. are they friends or are they just acquaintances? it's different for everyone but for me a friend is like someone that would take one for the team. there isn't really a lot of people out there that would do that I feel
Hmmm.. Now that I think of it, I feel we misuse the word friends a lot.. You're right, I like having a lot of acquaintances 😅
it's ok man everyone has their definition for a friend. maybe their requirements aren't as high. for me it's the take one for the team kind of level
One's experience while growing can really go a long way in shaping his or her attitudes to life including making friends.
I love having a lot of friends too. A journey with each friend has its unique experience.
Yeah.. The fact that any one of that friendship could lead anywhere is what intrigues me.
This is super relatable. I grew up in one of the roughest parts of my city. My mum, especially, tried to keep us(read as my brothers) away from the bad guys. Well, they got to play football in the neighborhood. Still, for the most part, they kept to themselves.
I was the one who had to bear the brunt of it all being the last kid. I stayed by myself and until now, I haven't learned to socialize well. I don't even find the interest. We all turned out really reserved people with the street smartness and whatnot.
Now, since over a year ago, I've been intentionally working towards changing a couple things. It gets really boring sometimes but I do my bit. I'm not looking forward to making too many friends anyway.
Sometimes when I think about it, I really want to blame my parents but then I know the truth was that they were only doing what they felt was right and they probably never knew it was going to affect us this way later in the future.
I believe that in case of friendship we shouldn't go for manual approch. True friendship creates automatically and find all the criteria to be friends sub-consciously. First day of my school was not so good for me. And fortunerly my cousin was there in the same school like your brother.
But for you to be friends with anyone, you have to speak to them first right? That's where the problem is, speaking to them.