Firstly, reading this reminded me of how much I missed reading well articulated think pieces!
To answer your question, I have felt exposed by my friendships in ways that I believe made me a better friend.
I always prided myself in being a “low maintenance friend” a term I now don’t believe in but in all actuality it was a way of me masking the fact that I was being lazy and unintentional about nurturing the relationships that I was blessed to have in my life.
At that time, I had the time to put in more effort into my friendships but I did not think it important enough. I then became friends with someone who was very intentional about our friendship, scheduling me into her routines and her day, celebrating any little milestone and going that tiny extra mile and I realised, “it feels good to love and pour wholeheartedly into your friendships” and at that moment, I decided to be a lot more in tune with my friendships.
Granted life has gotten in the way of this a little bit now seeing as my friends and I are in different phases of life and different parts of the world but the ones that are with me I try my best every single time I can to put in that tiny bit of effort and love.
In writing this you have put words to a feeling that I was yet to experience but anticipated. I feel that I resonate with your experience in that I feel safe separating my friends and being different people with each of them, not wanting them to mix so that they done spill these different flavors of me into their different cups potentially ruining the drinks.
Firstly, reading this reminded me of how much I missed reading well articulated think pieces!
To answer your question, I have felt exposed by my friendships in ways that I believe made me a better friend.
I always prided myself in being a “low maintenance friend” a term I now don’t believe in but in all actuality it was a way of me masking the fact that I was being lazy and unintentional about nurturing the relationships that I was blessed to have in my life.
At that time, I had the time to put in more effort into my friendships but I did not think it important enough. I then became friends with someone who was very intentional about our friendship, scheduling me into her routines and her day, celebrating any little milestone and going that tiny extra mile and I realised, “it feels good to love and pour wholeheartedly into your friendships” and at that moment, I decided to be a lot more in tune with my friendships.
Granted life has gotten in the way of this a little bit now seeing as my friends and I are in different phases of life and different parts of the world but the ones that are with me I try my best every single time I can to put in that tiny bit of effort and love.
Ahhh, thank you! Extra thanks for sharing and I’m glad you’ve come to that realization, every smidgen of effort makes a difference for sure!
In writing this you have put words to a feeling that I was yet to experience but anticipated. I feel that I resonate with your experience in that I feel safe separating my friends and being different people with each of them, not wanting them to mix so that they done spill these different flavors of me into their different cups potentially ruining the drinks.
precisely