Make new friends

I’ve met lots of new friends in the last while. My real challenge is maintaining the friendships. This is my next goal.

I’ve joined another social outing group, accepted invitations to gatherings, and invited people to do things with me. It makes me feel good to get involved with others.

I recently met some good people who have the potential of becoming friends. My next hurdle is to maintain those friendships. I have a tendency to talk myself out of relationships when there is potential for more depth. Something kicks in and I over-analyze everything until it feels useless to continue the friendship. This I need to really work on.

A lot of my life changed in the past year. I’m stronger and more compassionate toward others. It’s still hard to let the walls down and let others in. I guess I will get to this point when I’m ready.

I don’t always understand what motivates other people, what drives them to change or not. I’m really not an expert at this. Not at all. The one thing that holds it together for me is knowing that I have no control over others and whatever they do is a refelection on them, not me. Still, it’s puzzling.

I’m taking more initiative and extending invitations to my new friends, and they’re happily accepting. Yay!

I realized that part of it is not putting too much weight on any one friendship. This would be too much pressure on anyone; so I’m extending myself equally to all my new friends.

This is going well! I’ve met several people in the last few days and many of them I’d like to see more of. La de da!

Went out with some new friends tonight and it was easy to talk to them. I was nervous at first but afterwards I relaxed and enjoyed myself.

When do you know that you’ve officially made a friend? What’s the criteria?

I’m feeling more and more positive about this as I get more comfortable with smiling and making conversations with strangers.