Tags
challenge, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1854, favourite people, friends, postaday, ramblings, RamblingsInFebruary
Who are your favorite people to be around?
Hmm… That’s some question. Let me attempt an answer. But if you know me it is not going to be a one or two sentence thing, but a whole lot of them, and somewhere towards the end will be the answer. Here we go.
When I met some of my school/college mates after a long gap, forty or so, it was fun catching up, talking of old times, reliving memories. But..(Yes there’s always a ‘but’ waiting in the sidelines to step in on cue!) before long I realised apart from the good old days, and the grandchildren in the present (I have none as yet) there was nothing we had to talk about. Even their world view belonged to a time four decades or more back. Well, there are exceptions to that, but still….
As for the buddies from my days as an army wife, I realised the same thing. I cannot for the life of me imagine how or what we talked about all those years ago. I find that I have moved ahead, found new interests, expanded my horizons . They seem stuck to a time of life which is decades behind me now. The parties and the inane chatter bored me. If you attended one, you have attended them all, I felt.
I was almost resigned to my no-one-understands-me and there-is-no-one-who-thinks-like-me kind of existence which I kind of like because people actually drain me of energy. Anyway, it was in this almost lonely and friendless state of things that I decided to step out from my tower of isolation, keep aside my misgivings, and attend a meet up of ladies from my city. You see, it is difficult for me, I am not an extrovert and am always liable to run back into my shell at a moment’s notice.
The women in the group were fun loving, I found, and more importantly non-judgemental. They were from different walks of life, also of different sizes, ages and interests. We gelled quickly, not that there weren’t moments when I didn’t want to give it all up and go back to my lonely existence. However much I bemoan it, I do love to be by myself. But I told myself, ‘Enough Shail!’ and continued in the group. We meet up every month, eat, drink, dance, play games, and generally have a good time.
From among that larger crowd, six (including myself) got even closer and became the ‘sunshine’ band of women. And THEY are my most favourite people to hang out with now. We meet for no reason at all. Sometimes though they are for reasons like someone is feeling down and need their spirits lifted up. At other times it is birthdays. Just last month we celebrated the birthday of two of us even though their birthdays were behind us by a month at least.
Most times though the sunshine gang is just chilling over good food. We share our experiences in life, thoughts and opinions, discuss books that we have read or are reading, funny stories, sad stories of ailing parents, angry stories of what’s happening around us, stories of love and grit that saw us through life, frustrations with parenting, the empty nests…. you name it, we have it all. So yes, they are my favourite people to be around other than my immediate family.
©️ Shail Mohan 2024
Shail's Nest 
I can relate to this. As someone who has varied interests and no common topics like children, their exams, cooking etc, I’m often between people with who I can’t stay engaged. As an introvert, It’s even hard to then keep up with energy.
Good to be here after long, Shail. Hope you are well. ♥️
Good to know you’ve found such friends. Umm…have you checked which planets they are from?
Not Neptune, but closer to it than Earth 🙂
I agree. It’s hard to find such people lol.
I can, as often I do with your posts, very much empathise with all this. Oddly, I’m starting to think that ‘too much intimate friendship’ is not such a good thing. Fights break out more often, for a start. I wonder if our/my parents had the right idea by seeing old friends only occasionally – Christmas time, for instance. A meal together for a couple of hours catching up on life and having superficial fun once or twice a year actually seems the better way to do it I think now. Everything stays nice, you get the cozy feel of how much these people are loved, but you don’t hang around often enough to find out they irritate or bore you!
I have two favorite groups of people:
My friends whom I can turn to for anything (better than family at times). They are my rock and we always have fun and share all the past memories we have.
A spriritual group I’m part of. As similar, whenever crummy life events happen, it’s so easy to turn to them for support and advice on what is needed to get through. I always feel good after attending these groups after having a bad day.
Overall, I would say just having positive and uplifting people around in general tends to be the type of people I prefer to be with.
You know, Shail, we have so much in common! Introvert, enjoying our own company, lonely, or enjoying our solitude, and not connecting with school friends as we have moved on. I was nodding my head all the time I was reading the earlier paragraphs of your post. 🙂
As for me, my favourite people are my mum, my few besties, my pets, and the stray fur babies I meet while on my evening walks. 🙂 Time spent with these people (and animals) is the best for me. It leaves me with a big smile on my face. Always. 🙂
Great answer. My best friends, sadly, live far away but when I see them it’s like we’ve never been apart. Living where I live now is great because I have made just a few very good friends and I enjoy getting together with them.