For the last few years around Australia Day, I’ve liked writing something a bit sentimental and it was Australia Day a few days ago, so here’s what I have this year.
Late last year, I was in a bit of a state of despair. I was feeling run down, under a bit of (somewhat self-inflicted) pressure at work, and just generally unhappy. So I did the one thing I knew would bring me back to life: I reached out to a friend.
And I don’t just mean over the internet, although it started that way. No, when you feel like that, the only remedy is some IRL face-to-face time with a good friend.
There are two reasons why just messaging doesn’t cut it for me:
- Everything is easily misinterpreted and can often feel like it lacks sincerity over IM chat, and
- Messaging sessions have a way of becoming frustratingly asynchronous, i.e. the other person just takes forever to respond.Telephone’s a step up, video chat’s even better, but nothing can beat actual real-world contact with a friend. And you know what? It made me feel so much better! After as little as an hour of talking, of resynchronising with each other’s lives, I felt clear and back on track.
Again, the other day I got the chance to catch up with a bunch of my friends, for the first time in almost 6 months, and it felt so good to see them all again. The exact same situation happened this time last year too. We had a great time just chatting, catching up, talking about old times, and making plans for the future.
At one point, a friend actually made the comment that
“True friends are ones where, when you catch up, it’s like no time has passed”.
And the cliché-ness of that line is not the biggest problem I have with it. For me, it’s not that no time has passed, it’s that no distance has grown between you. Of course time has passed, that’s what you’ve got to catch up on, but the fact that you can talk to them without missing a beat, as if nothing’s really changed is what makes it a great friendship.
Catching up with my friends is like a bit of a drug for me (not that we do anything like that). Once I’ve seen them, I want to see them again, and again, in quick succession. I’ve always been lucky that, even though I’m a bit of a loner, I’ve always had a few good friends around me, and that’s something I’m really thankful for. Even though many of them haven’t endured, they were important to me at that time, in that place in my life. As a loner, I’m only starting to fully realise the natural high you can get from being with friends. Socialising often hasn’t been my highest priority, but lately it’s been such an enjoyable thrill. Even when things don’t quite go to plan, or worse(!), the next day I still feel like doing it all over again. Because I was with friends.
Anyway, that’s how I feel. What do you think? What are you thankful for? Tell me in comments, or there’s always the “Contact” page…
Post again soon,
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