I consider myself a friendly person.  I really try to make others feel good and try to help them and do other things that make a good friend.

But I’m not really all that social.  I don’t strike up conversations with people I don’t know and I’m not that good a small talk.  I will sit quietly amongst a group of people I don’t know instead of getting everyone to talk to each other.

I tend to wait for something to click with someone before I start to feel comfortable chatting and opening up.  And I don’t necessarily easily click with people.

Many of my close friends I have known most of my life.  We’ve wondered whether we gravitated to each other because we are all a bunch of freaks or whether we turned each other into freaks.  I love my girls.

Since I don’t live too close to my girls, I have had the opportunity to spread my wings and make some new friends closer to home.  I joined some playgroups when A and T were babies and met some fabulous women through them.  But it took a while to really warm up and be open.

Because I am a bundle of self doubt, I tend to think that others won’t really like me and that I’m kind of a nuisance.

Is everyone like this?

I know folks who seem to make friends everywhere and know tons of people.  I’ve always wanted to be so outgoing.

When I first joined Twitter, I didn’t like it at all.  Chatting with strangers, even virtually, seemed so out of my comfort zone.

But then I stumbled upon people who I felt I could relate to.  It is a strange way to meet people but I am starting to feel more connections with people there.

Sometimes it is actually easier to be open and say what is on my mind there and on my blog because there isn’t someone right there for me to see whether or not they respond.  In the virtual world, sometimes they respond, sometimes they don’t, and it is a little easier not to take it personally.

I always tend to feel like I am the only one who thinks a certain way or feels a certain way.  So I wondered how others get close to people.

Is it like me?  Shy in person but maybe more open in the social media world?  And can you really meet friends that way?

It’s bizarre to me to feel far from people that I can touch in real life and close to people I have never actually met.

I love my real life friends and the relationships I have.

And I love meeting people in cyberspace.

Maybe I am finally figuring out how to make friends.

How do you make friends?

———————————————————–

Tweet