Social Butterfly
One way Luke and I are different is in our desire to socialize.
Luke would be perfectly happy to stay home all weekend and relax, while I feel the urge to go out and spend time with friends. Luke has a small group of friends he’s really close to, while I have a larger network of people I try to keep up with.
The problem is, living in a city like Chicago (where half of my hometown migrated to after college) means I have A LOT of friends to hang out with (I know, tough problem, huh!). Most times I love having so many options of things to do and people to see, but occasionally I start feeling stretched too thin.
With busy jobs, relationships, vacations ect its becoming nearly impossible to get all my friends together in one place, which makes it hard to maintain meaningful relationships with EVERYONE.
I’m starting to feel like I’m foregoing strong relationships with my closest friends to be “sort of” friends with a lot of people.
What do you think, is it better to be friends with a lot of people or have a close-knit group of core friends?
How do you keep up with the network of people who are important to you?
Sounds EXACTLY like me and my husband. I love having a larger- broader group of friends- but as we get older, get married… have kids… it gets harder to keep up with for sure! While my husband and his small group seem to keep up with each other just fine.
It’s tough.
It does get really tough to keep up the close-knit relationships with a large number of people. However, it’s always good to have that core group that you know will be there for you when you need them (and you will). They also understand that you can’t do things all the time the way you once did, but when you get together with them its as if no time has passed since your last get-together. Those are your true friends. I think that it’s also nice to have lots of casual friends, too. Everyone has a story and I personally enjoy getting to hear at least a portion of anyone’s as we come in contact with each other.
Corine – We are so alike! lol. Maybe the boys have the right idea with keeping a close, core group?
Dave – I totally agree on having those friends who you can pick up with whenever you see them. I love that about so many of my friends. I also really like being around a wide variety of people….they’re all interesting in their own ways!
I think a lot of people have this problem with crazy work schedules and just busy lives in general. I don’t have that many friends that live in Chicago, but the ones I do I stay really close with and make a priority. I stay connected to not-so-close friends more online through Facebook and Twitter so not to waste my valuable free time on things that are not as important.