I work with one young girl who is struggling a bit.  She became friends with older students, leaving behind some of her peers.  The older students are now in the midst of being, well, older and my young student is feeling left behind.  And she’s struggling more as she recognizes that she may have caused other to feel the way she is feeling right now.

Friendship is tough.  Dealing with differences, hormones, changed…it’s all quite hard.   And it gets harder as you get older, unless, perhaps, you remain in the same town with the same people for your entire life (though that could bring up other problems).

My first move was to college.  I knew no one.  And I was thrilled.  I had been around the same people for most of my life and felt it was time for a change.  I wanted to BE someone new.  The only way to make this move was to leave.  And I had a blast.  I made some good friends.  Two of which I still communicate with sporadically.

Then post-college.  I moved home for a bit and had a bunch of my old high school friends around.  It was a nice into into ‘the real world’…but I never really met anyone else cause it was too comfortable.  I didn’t have to make an effort.

I moved after that many other times, never again to be around an old friend.  In NJ, my only good friend was my boyfriend and that wasn’t a good thing.  We were too exclusive.  I didn’t have a life outside of him and hanging with my roommates once in a while.  In DC, I worked in a boarding school and became good friends over time with a few other teachers.  I still talk to them and really loved their company.  In Boston, I met a wild group of women who I will have as lifelong friends.  But again, it took some time and some effort.  It never came easy.

Here in London…well, I had one good friend who moved back to the States.  And I’m currently developing a few female friendships.  I don’t have a BFF like I did in high school…but I do have people to hang with.  But my husband, well, he’s my best friend forever.  And in some ways, that’s a really good thing.  But I do miss having one person here I can talk to about EVERYTHING and go out with regularly.  But that may come eventually…in time.  Cause it gets harder as you get older.  But the friendships you do form, can be seriously strong.