Thursday, December 01, 2005

Friends ...

I had a conversation yesterday that made me think about my "friends"...
I am going for a vacation pretty soon to see my family and friends and to celebrate my 30st birthday. My mom want's to know how I would like to celebrate and where, with whom and so on ... So I told her that I would like to see ALL my family (it's not 200 or more people like it may be common here in Kuwait... more like 10-15) and my friends... So since she knows our family she asked me how many of my friends will show up ... That started me thinking!!!
In school I hung out with maybe 60-70 peole on a regular bases and I knew about 300... then I joined military ... I hung out with maybe 20-30 people ... then i started working in a civilian job ... i hung out with maybe 5-10 people ...
NOW I am in Kuwait ... there is a bunch of people I hang out with ... friends ... hmmm ... don't really know ...
Most of the people I would call friends maybe still in Germany ... but it's not more then 2 or 3 people that would come to my birthday ...

Where did all those people go and why don't we see eachother anymore ... ???

Sad and strange... isn't it?

7 comments:

Evil Knievel said...

Maybe I should edit my post instead of writing a comment to it ... :P
Just realised that this post does not contain the words:
car, speed, drive or anything close to that...
AND it's not really funny ...

Sorry for that ... :P

U.E. said...

Not all friendships are created equal but all play an important part in our lives. I read an article similar to the excepts below that gave a great description of 'friends'. Bascially, that there are several types of friendships; Best, Close, Casual and Pseudo.

Best - "This kind of friendship conjures up the strongest fantasies about friendship. Someone who is there for you, no matter what; someone who puts you first in his or her life. This person is the friend before all others; it is a relationship that has withstood the tests of time and conflict, major changes such as moving, or status changes, such as marrying or having a child.

Close - "Close friends are faithful, dear, tender, reliable, and intimate. It is close friends, especially outside the workplace, who offer you the choice relationship outside of romance or family ties to fulfill your emotional or intellectual needs.

Casual - A casual friend is the kind of friendship for those who feel they have too much to lose by "telling all" in a best or close friendship. Casual friends take less time to develop or maintain than close or best friendships. In the post-adolescent years, especially if you have strong romantic or family ties, or work commitments, casual friendship may be all you can handle.

Pseudo - Fair weather and foul weather pseudo-friendships are one-sided. Fair weather pseudo-friends require that you are always "Up" and the limits are set by one friend, not both.

If you can count a handful of people in you close and best friend categories, you are truly lucky. And it made me ask myself... what kind of friend am I.

Growing pains E.K, but you'll always have a friend in me... it's up to you what type. :-D

Evil Knievel said...

tusa aguse mise:
Yeah ... right ... moving always "kills" a lot of relationships...

coquine:
I am very happy with 2 very good friends... both live in germany and are always there. Thanks for the birthday wishes ... but isn't it bad luck to give them in advance?!

U.E.:
YOU! he he ... your friend scale doesn't show us two on it ... does it??

Freigeist said...

°oO0 hmmm 0Oo°

made me think... and brought me back to a proverb that I know:

A friend is a person, that knows you and still talks to you. ;-)

I'm anyway not a person that likes to know a million people in this world. Maybe I'm just picky or people are just picky on me... who knows.

Luckly I have a person that I would call a Friend.

All the other ones (male or female) I would call buddies.


This friend of mine got a job offered by me and rejected that one. His explaination:

"What if I f**k up that job? You spoke for me and I let you down. No thanks, our friendship is more worth than any money I can earn with you guys."

Yes, I'm really glad that I know somebody like him.

I think if you have a lot of buddies around you, you make up your mind quick, if they are worth to stay in touch with. I moved a lot in my life already, but there are still a few left I always will stay in touch with.

to say it with Heinz Rühman ( german, in the world unknown actor):

Ein Freund, ein guter Freund das ist das Beste was es gibt auf der Welt...

A friend, a good friend that is the best that you can have in this world...

U.E. said...

Hmmm... maybe we can make up our own category, huh? Something to do with 'so desperately bored they cling to each other catatonically'. hee hee

Nooni said...

i wonder why you call those 300 etc as friends! if they were real friends you would hear from them and they wouldnt vanish.

Im sorry to tell you that kuwait isnt the place for friend ship

personaly i changed my 200 list of frineds twice :) and every time its growing bigger and larger but whome i consider as friends this is what counts.

its not sad dear its a motivation to make new friends and keep the scale with large numbers dont you think?

Evil Knievel said...

The ponderer:
In U.E. chart that would be a "Best friend". Take good care of him!

U.E.:
So you are desperately seeking ... entertainment?! :P

Judy Abbott:
Kinda proud you comment here! :)
Well, I didn't call all those 300 as my "friends". Like U.E. commented there are different types of friends. It was around 300 people i was hanging out with ... they where "casual", some "close" and maybe two "best" friends.
Making new friends and keeping the ones you have sometimes is a though challenge... butyou get rewarded with a very important thing... friend ship!