Making New Friends As We Age

Recently at dinner with girlfriends discussing the trials and tribulations of life, we stumbled upon a topic that happens to be near and dear to my heart...making new friends as we age, why is it so hard?

Why is it as we get older, we very seldom make new friends? Initially this topic struck me as odd, because I continually join new things and meet new people all the time. But they are not my lifelong friends with bonds that take a life time to build. And then it dawned on me, that these new people that I meet are teammates, colleagues, summer acquaintances, not true blue friends. So why is that?

I know that time is a major player in this. We just don't have the time. We can hardly make the time to socialize with the people we do know, how would we fit in the time for someone we hardly know?

I've also noticed with the older crowd, they plain and simple don't want any more friends. I don't know if those words will ever leave my mouth because I love meeting new people and learning all about them. I think I'm secretly dreaming about having a 'G-rated, after school special' ending. Sadly I've never had a "Very Best Friend" since childhood. I moved a lot, making it almost impossible to keep in touch with people. I was too young to understand the meaning of BFF's.

But as I've aged, I've been able to (with the help of Facebook) rekindle old friendships. But I've also realized that we need all kinds of friends for different reasons. We need a friend who will always be our shoulder to cry on. We need a friend that always makes us laugh. We need a friend who makes us courageous, a friend who will tell us the truth when we need to hear it. A friend who we look up to, a friend who brings out the best in us, a friend who when you look at her will know exactly what you're thinking, a friend who we adore, a friend who would do anything for us, a friend who is patient, kind, understanding and most of all integral. After reading this list, I now know why it is so hard to make new friends as we age...our demands are too high. (kidding)

Despite that I will continue to make new friends, acquaintances, whatever you want to call them because in the end, I'll just call them new found friends.

Generation Why??

I recently finished taking another part time course and was eerily reminded of the last course I took. Both instructors advised us that as a society we should all learn about the 'Gen Y'. That our world is changing and that we'd better change with it. It was odd how both instructors mentioned this even though neither course has anything to do with the other.

Don't get me wrong, I think there is merit to this advice, but I think that there is a very large learning curve being missed here. It's great that we "other generations" are learning about the 'Gen Y's', but what about them? Don't you think that it is important for them to learn about all the other generations out there? I asked this very same question in both classes and was surprised to hear that it's not as important for them to learn about us as it is for us to learn about them. That "this is the way the world is going". I understand that we all hop on the "Way the World is Going" bandwagon. But in order to move forward, don't we need to know where we're coming from?

These kids are our futures; they will be the ones who will be making all the tough decisions in this world, the ones who will be shaping the world that we live in. And honestly from what I've seen so far, I'm not sure they know what they're doing...

I'm a 'Gen-Xer', the supposed bridge between the 'Baby Boomers' and the 'Gen Y's'. I've seen the old and I've seen the new...I can't really say I'm all that thrilled about the new. It's odd because I am on the cusp of being a 'Gen Y'; but I can relate more to the 'Baby Boomers'. I can't for the life of me figure out how these kids (who will be driving the market) have no respect for anyone. It's like it's instilled into them, they have no initiative, no purpose. They always need to be near an electronic device at all times. They text message each other while they're in the same room...I think communicating is too much work. I honestly can't put all the blame on them, they were raised that way. Their parents had to work for everything they got and decided that their children would never have to work as hard as they did; inevitably creating lazy, entitled and socially stunted kids.

Don't get me wrong, these 'little brats' have also done good things too. They've brought balance back to our lives, something we all need. They also upped the ante in the education department. They are smart kids when they want to be. They are also forward thinkers, enabling us to solve problems and come up with new ideas faster than in the past. But they still need to know where they are coming from before they can move ahead. They need to learn from all the mistakes that previous generations made, so that they don't make the same ones. This will give them a sense of accomplishment and self-worth.

There is so much potential here for these kids, I really hope they take the time to learn about generations past so that we aren't asking ourselves down the road...Generation Why???