Do you have a lot of friends....

[SWMOchick]

....your age? I wasn't really part of a clique or a large group of friends in high school. I've lost touch with nearly everyone I graduated with that I was in touch with regularly during high school. I didn't go to college for long enough to make any lifelong friends. I've noticed though, that the people I consider to be friends now are either 3+ years younger than me or 10+ years older than me. It's hard to find friends my age for some reason. They've all moved away!

Example: I'm 30. My two closest friends are a single woman who's 23 and a married woman who's 49. I have one friend my age that I've known since high school, but we are completely different people now. We still get together every month or two to catch up, but that's about it. It just seems weird. I looked up some info about Springfield online, and the average age is 33. Definitely not because a majority of people are that age.

[shorty]

Well, it's hard for me to say because I wouldn't really say I have many friends (well, not really any, if I'm completely honest). I didn't really have any close friends in high school and I lost contact with most of the people I kinda knew in college (and any others live too far away now).

I have found that I still tend to try to hang out with people my age, +/- 3 years or so. I guess it's mostly because I'm still hung up on the whole age thing, but as I get older, it's starting to become less of an issue with me. Or maybe it's just because it's harder to meet people when you've been out of college for a few years, so I'm trying to be less picky, I guess.

[SmilesSoSweet]

The close friends I do have are a handful of friends that are back home. I didn't really meet too many people out here when I moved here over two years ago.

I have a couple of friends from church, but I only see them when I go to mass and I really don't hang out with them much anymore because we're all busy.

Now that I've been dating my BF for a few months now, he's basically my closest friend here. He's kind of in the same situation as his closest friend was his brother (three years older than him) and his brother recently moved out of state.

My BF and I do tend to be homebodies and don't feel the need to constantly be around a lot of people. It works for us and even before him, I was okay with not having a lot of friends. I'd rather have a handful of good quality friends then a whole lot of okay friends.

[wordsmith]

Yes, but many of them don't live extremely close by.

[shadeofgreen]

My best friends (for lack of a better term) are still the ones I made in college, and all of them live far away. Acquaintances here are mostly coworkers, some are in their twenties and some are older. I feel like it's hard to find things in common with anyone who is older, married, and especially if they have kids, regardless of their age. But, I haven't made any close friends since college at all, really. It's just easier to make friends your own age when you're surrounded by them as you are in college.

[cheshrcarol]

My best friend and I met in HS, so yes we're the same age. Although we live in different states at the moment. I'm also still pretty close to a lot of my college friends, but no one lives near by. I do have a bunch of friends that are several years younger than me - here at work, and grad school friends.

[and1grad]

All of my friends are w/i 5 years of my age, older & younger.

[steph78]

In Atlanta most of my friends were within about 3 years of my age. Earlier this year I moved to AL into a subdivision about 12 years old. Turns out most of the people here bought their houses back when the subdivision was new and when they were close to my age, just starting out with kids. I am 29 and most of our neighbors are in their mid-40s. It's a bit of a switch from Atlanta, that's for sure.

Even my husband's work friends are older now - in his industry you pretty much need a PhD. He went straight through school to get one and just finished a few months ago. Most of his coworkers are at least ten years older than him, if not more. So I have met some of his coworker's wives, and it's like hanging out with my mom's friends! One of his coworker's wives is only about 10 years older than me and has a baby close in age to mine so we have started hanging out, but that's as close as I've got.

I do keep in touch with a lot of friends from high school/college, but none of them live close to me - we just e-mail/talk on the phone and visit at holidays.

[pisces2473]

I do keep in touch with a lot of friends from high school/college, but none of them live close to me - we just e-mail/talk on the phone and visit at holidays.
Yeah, me too.

I don't have a lot of close by friends, and none at work.

[blue27]

I am 27 years old...I don't have many friends.. and I think as I get older I really don't need alot friends and sometimes I feel i should have more because of societies ideas about friendship.. but then again I am losing this concern to a have x number friends as i get older.. you know the whole if you don't have friends you must be a freak whatever...alot of people I know have 1 or 2 friends and seem just if happy as the friends who have several....me and my boyfriend are bestfriends though.. we both are home bodies too, I have one really close friend from college I talk to regularly, and a few associates I talk to sporadiacally.. and a couple of ladies I hang out with time to time.. very casual friendship nothing close..and that's my social life in a nut shell...

[lostnotyetfound]

I'm shy and introverted which makes it quite difficult to make friends. I never had a ton of friends in high school but had a few. I lived off campus throughout my college career so I didn't make any friends there. My high school friends did attend the same college but got into binge drinking and drug use which weren't my thing and so we lost touch.

Currently I'm 25 and don't have any friends. It does get lonely sometimes and I do wish that I had even a few friends to go out and do things with. For whatever reason people in this stage of their life seem to already have an established group and have no desire to make new friends. Which makes me kind of sad to think I will go through life without ever having another friend. But some things are just beyond my control and I need to learn how to occupy my time and be content by myself.

[mahlerssecond]

I wouldnt say that I have any close friends, but a lot of people that I can call upon if I need to. My closest thing to a best friend is a 41 year old co-worker. I have many people I associate with at church. They are from all different ages and walks of life. In this case I seem to have found people in many cases similar to me. Lastly I have a couple of other people I talk to on occasion from my work in the Democratic party.

Once in a blue moon I will hear from someone from high school or childhood, but I seem to have little or nothing in common with most of these folks.

[wordsmith]

I have always been a person with a small clutch of friends I'm very close to, emotionally, but may not hang out with all the time. I've never been a social butterfly, or have a lot of acquaintances I go out and do things with. When I'm out and about, it's generally with one other person at a time, a friend, or my sister, or my brother, or somebody. Not a big group person much of the time. Also, my siblings are my closest friends, and I'm two years removed from my brothers, and six years removed from my sister. My sisters in law are my age and three years younger.

[SWMOchick]

I am 27 years old...I don't have many friends.. and I think as I get older I really don't need alot friends and sometimes I feel i should have more because of societies ideas about friendship.. but then again I am losing this concern to a have x number friends as i get older.. you know the whole if you don't have friends you must be a freak whatever...alot of people I know have 1 or 2 friends and seem just if happy as the friends who have several....me and my boyfriend are bestfriends though.. we both are home bodies too, I have one really close friend from college I talk to regularly, and a few associates I talk to sporadiacally.. and a couple of ladies I hang out with time to time.. very casual friendship nothing close..and that's my social life in a nut shell...
I don't have many friends either. The older married friend of mine is like a second mom to me. The younger one seems to look up to me for some reason, and I find myself living vicariously through her. It's hard to meet people with my work schedule, but it would be nice to call up a couple of people for a girls' night out on a Saturday. I don't necessarily need a lot of friends, but it would be nice to have a couple I could really associate and empathize with.

[blue27]

I don't have many friends either. The older married friend of mine is like a second mom to me. The younger one seems to look up to me for some reason, and I find myself living vicariously through her. It's hard to meet people with my work schedule, but it would be nice to call up a couple of people for a girls' night out on a Saturday. I don't necessarily need a lot of friends, but it would be nice to have a couple I could really associate and empathize with.

I kinda think thats all a person needs a couple of close friends..I think I probably would like just one other close friend.. cause when I did have alot of friends it was hard to meet all their expectations and have a boyfriend, a job, spend time with my family, and go to school.. it was a bit much... having less friends but good ones work best in my life.. it is alot more manageble for me...and as for casual friends and aquantacies (spelling) you can just hang out with them when time permits..less expectations to meet..makes for a nice set up.

[aggiegrad05]

I kinda think thats all a person needs a couple of close friends..I think I probably would like just one other close friend.. cause when I did have alot of friends it was hard to meet all their expectations and have a boyfriend, a job, spend time with my family, and go to school.. it was a bit much... having less friends but good ones work best in my life.. it is alot more manageble for me...and as for casual friends and aquantacies (spelling) you can just hang out with them when time permits..less expectations to meet..makes for a nice set up.
That's interesting. I've never really thought of my friends as work. We do things together because we enjoy each other's company. It's not about meeting expectations or fulfilling obligations. I can't get enough of my friends and rarely ever pass up on an opportunity to hang out if I'm available unless I'm just exhausted. But a lot of times we do the stuff that I'd have to do anyway, like eat dinner or watch Thursday night TV.

[spiritedaway]

No, now that I've been out of college for a good 5 years now, it's still harder to meet people my age than when I was in college.

The few close friends that I have are either engaged, married, or married with kids. I know this sounds bad, but I don't need a lot of new friends except for the instant interest/chemistry kind, just because it's a lot of work to maintain friendships and I really don't have enough time to devote to my existing ones, let alone new ones.

I'm actually quite happy with just meeting up with my friends once every few weeks, because I need time for work, family, and "me" time to keep it all balanced. Any more and I feel like I just don't have enough time, especially since my friends are more into the let's eat lunch/dinner type every time we meet up, and I'm actually more into activities. So maybe I need new friends, after all. :rolleyes:

[SWMOchick]

No, now that I've been out of college for a good 5 years now, it's still harder to meet people my age than when I was in college.

The few close friends that I have are either engaged, married, or married with kids. I know this sounds bad, but I don't need a lot of new friends except for the instant interest/chemistry kind, just because it's a lot of work to maintain friendships and I really don't have enough time to devote to my existing ones, let alone new ones.

I'm actually quite happy with just meeting up with my friends once every few weeks, because I need time for work, family, and "me" time to keep it all balanced. Any more and I feel like I just don't have enough time, especially since my friends are more into the let's eat lunch/dinner type every time we meet up, and I'm actually more into activities. So maybe I need new friends, after all. :rolleyes:
I've get more than plenty of "me" time. I'm a very social person. I love meeting new people and mingling. I run errands during the day, work evenings, and have me time from 12:30-3/4 AM. I love having plans on most weekends. Although, Saturday night was me, movies, pizza, and a couple of beers. Felt pretty good. Feels better whenever that's an every once in awhile thing instead of an every weekend thing.

[blue27]

That's interesting. I've never really thought of my friends as work. We do things together because we enjoy each other's company. It's not about meeting expectations or fulfilling obligations. I can't get enough of my friends and rarely ever pass up on an opportunity to hang out if I'm available unless I'm just exhausted. But a lot of times we do the stuff that I'd have to do anyway, like eat dinner or watch Thursday night TV.
I think that even though I enjoy my relationships (family, boyfriend, friendships) i think they do take work to maintain but not like a job work let me clarfiy.. but hmm... energy..time.. quality.. it takes energy to go see them, hang out with everyone and be there for everyone.. and of course they love me and are their for me too..I just don't want anyone to be neglected.. which from my experience has happened when i have several peoeple in my life.. I can offer more quality when I am not spread too thin..when i was a few years younger I had an insane amount of energy goodness, but now not so much..

[TinyDancer]

I have a wide range of ages of friends. . . some my parents age, and some right out of college. . . but most of my friends are my age or a year or two off. Most of my closest friends are from college (and we are all scattered to the wind). I'm freakishly good about keeping up with people. I still talk to many people from my dorm from fresh & soph years. . .

I move around a lot for work, and make new friends wherever I go. Many of my co-workers are in the same age group. I'm lucky to have a workplace where I have the opportunitity to have so many friends my age. . . that being said, I love my *older* friends. I refer to two friends in my current location as "aunt" and "uncle". . . and they refer to me at their "niece". I am not related to either of them. I met my "uncle" at work and my "aunt" oustide of work. My friends that are my parents age are like aunts and uncles away from home.

[ugarachel82]

....your age? I wasn't really part of a clique or a large group of friends in high school. I've lost touch with nearly everyone I graduated with that I was in touch with regularly during high school. I didn't go to college for long enough to make any lifelong friends. I've noticed though, that the people I consider to be friends now are either 3+ years younger than me or 10+ years older than me. It's hard to find friends my age for some reason. They've all moved away!

Example: I'm 30. My two closest friends are a single woman who's 23 and a married woman who's 49. I have one friend my age that I've known since high school, but we are completely different people now. We still get together every month or two to catch up, but that's about it. It just seems weird. I looked up some info about Springfield online, and the average age is 33. Definitely not because a majority of people are that age.

Simple answer: No.

I always believed quality over quantity. I wasn't part of a clique either, but made a few good friends (that I still speak to today despite being in separate states) through activities and recreational sports away from school. I have a few friends from various jobs and roommates that I still talk to as well. I prefer that over a large group of friends anyway. It does stink when they aren't available to hang out on a Friday night, but I usually have no problem finding something to occupy myself either.

[wordsmith]

I'm freakishly good about keeping up with people. I still talk to many people from my dorm from fresh & soph years. . .

Same.

My friends that are my parents age are like aunts and uncles away from home.

Yep, I had this experience when I first moved to Chicago, and had people at work who basically "adopted" me.