When it comes to friends, quality beats quantity any day anytime for me, While some people always want anyone to be around them in the name of friendship, I seek out meaningful connections that enrich my life. As an introvert at heart, large social gatherings often drain me a lot.so I prefer having fewer but deeper friendships rather than multitudes.
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Making friends, easy or not?
This wasn’t always the case though, as a young teen even though I was a shy type, in high school and college, I always had lots of friends flock around me, especially when results were out, which mostly had me topping the class, I might start on being on my own, but the moment the result gets released, forget it, I'm in for lots of friends, it was easy for me to make friends without doing too much, but were they all true friends or friends with benefits, I realized chasing shallow friendships only led to disappointment because when I consider them friends, I only realized that they after what they could gain from me, like helping them with an assignment or project in school, which isn't a bad thing but that was all they were all about, only a few were friends. What I longed for were friends who made me feel seen and understood, who were not after what they could benefit from but were truly concerned friends, who knew when my smile meant something else, and vice versa.
Cultivating meaningful connections takes effort and self-awareness which I think comes with age, no wonder our circle of friends reduces as we get older because through hurts from betrayals we learn our lesson and know better that having friends requires reflecting on our core values and social preferences before really considering them as friends. What do you value most in friendships? For me, it’s honesty, loyalty, and show, of care
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve embraced having a small clique of friends. These are people who share my values, understand my quirks, and bring out the best in me. They give me the social nourishment an introvert like me needs without the exhaustion of big groups. Quality over quantity becomes the mantra. Some of my old time old-timethough few became family, who share same values as me, understand my personality and we are always looking out for each other's growth which further allows for deeper bonds. I've had friends that your very growth causes envy and trust me, you don't want to have those kind of friends around you. The internet even makes it easier for introverted people these days, I discovered that my online circle of friends are more than the physical meet friends and they are kinda cool, because they know how to keep the communication going for long and truly reach out for each other as long as we have common goals, Hive fir instance has blessed me with such kind of friends and I'm grateful to have them.
How do I prefer my circle of friends
From my write up above, you can already guess I prefer having small circle of friends, might be just one true friend but makes me feel at peace and not feel like there is a vacancy that needs filling. I now focus on devoted friends who prove through actions like frequent check-ins or remembering meaningful details that they cherish our bond as much as I do.