Friends

How many friends do you have? Hm, that´s a lot. Now how many actually give a shit about you? Yeah, thought so. Many people go for quantity, rather than quality. What´s the point? It´s like collecting stamps that you don´t really care about. Requires effort, but you don´t get anything back. Is it selfish to expect something back? Maybe, but there´s nothing wrong with making sure you´re happy. If you are not happy, you can´t make others happy. So make sure you surround yourself with people who make you happy and support you, not just people who you had the best drunken night with, but they will barely remember your name. But this post isn´t about that, that was just a brain dump 🙂

I´m at Quito Airport, about to test airport sleeping for the second time (first time in Bangkok and it was pretty good), a guy is snoring next to me and I have some time to kill, so why not to use it to write something… I´d like to write about how we find friends.

Most of us know a lot of people through work, from places we live in, through partying, through existing friends or through our hobbies. Now take these ways of meeting friends, and think about friends from which way really do give a shit about you. By that I mean they will stand by you in any situation, good or bad, they will go out of their way to help you in need, they know the baddest shit that you did that only a few people know. I´ve been on the road for over two months now, met so many people, different backgrounds, different lifestyles and ideas. Had many good discussions with them, shared a drink, food, a walk or just a random encounter on the street. But I didn´t click with all of them. I woulnd´t go out of my way to help most of them (not saying I wouldn´t help, but I wouldn´t sacrifice too much to help).

But there were some that I really clicked with. Those people left a mark on me, a positive one and some even managed to change my life a bit. I will stay in touch with them, exchange ideas, opinions or hopefully meet with them in the future. Many of these know more about me than many people I know for years, with many I shared some personal things that not even my family know. (sorry mum!). I am very happy I met these people, I also met many people like that when I wasn´t travelling, but I met them doing what I like to do. And this is the important bit – met them doing what I like to do, what inspires me, what makes my day interesting. I didn´t meet these people doing stuff I must do to pay my bills, or accidentally, I met them because I put myself in a situation or environment that is important to me. And obviously the same environment was important to them, as they were there too. So it was easier to meet, talk about things we have in common and realize that they are really my kind of people. Same goes for this journey. I meet many travellers, who share similar principles as I do, not all of them are the important friends I described above, but being here, doing things I love gives me many more chances to meet such people.

My point is – do more of the things you enjoy that help you widen your perspective (which includes meeting people, but has a wider meaning too). Spend less time in front of the TV and spend more time on your hobbies, going cycling, going to dance classes, going to kickboxing, going to pottery classes for all I care…. The people who might be your best friends or enhance your life in one way or another might just be there. Don´t wait for them to find you, don´t wait for opportunities to find you. Get your ass out there.