Guest Post: Can we be friends?

I just got back from Napa last night close to midnight so I'm still in recovery mode and soaking up every second of today with my boys. This post is so timely as I work through my own struggles with building friendships in a new(ish) city and learning to branch out of my comfort zone. 

I hope you'll welcome her and go say hello to her on twitter!

You don't know me but here you are welcoming me into your home, your day, your life. My name is Gina and this is my first blog post ever. My family is my life: my husband, my 3 y/o son, Luc and my 14 y/o four-legged baby girl, Isabelle. Hi, very nice to meet you! I am very honored you are reading this...

While I was pondering what to write for my guest blog, a recurring thought went through my mind... friendship. Family is family - you may love them, most are strange and some are dysfunctional, but there is no picking them. Friends on the other hand, are completely yours for the picking. Do you make friends easy? Do you find it easier or harder as you get older? Do you loose touch with friends? Are you a good friend or are you the one who is always in need of a good friend? I used to find it easier to make friends. I always had a best friend in school. Still have a very close friendship with my girlfriend from high school who supports me almost as much as my own mother! When I worked in an office, I was part of a group of young professionals and we all shared a common thread, WORK! But then I got married, moved away and from there it got more prickly. Friendships may still be strong, but the daily interaction, the soundboard I've relied on has become less frequent or even nonexistent. Maybe its family responsibilities, long distance or differing schedules; life gets complicated and friendship becomes confusing.

I've recently gotten more involved with social media. For me, social media has become a world where people share, give and encourage each other consistently. Its empowering, fulfilling and uplifting. I surround myself with positive messages, inspirational quotes and supportive jabber between "SMfriends". Since I work from home, I find the daily interactions on Twitter and Facebook very engaging. I've read the reminders that social media is not real life, but is it wrong that I'm hoping my social media friends will eventually become my real life friends? Note that I DID meet my husband online, and that seemed to have worked in my favor! In the meantime, I am working on building new friendships in the real world, too. I've joined Meetup groups and have started some very healthy, active friendships from there (is it irony to start them on the internet though?). I'm planning on getting more involved with church and even signed up to volunteer with a nonprofit I used to be more involved with. I've also reached out more to my old friends and made time to reconnect. Although I am very limited in my own personal time, I am a normal, active woman, who loves having supportive friends and would do anything for a close friend, so as friends go, I'm really a good "catch". My good friend Ellie once asked when we were in our mid-twenties... "Remember when we were kids and you could go up to another girl and ask, 'Can we be friends?' and then proceed to skip onto the playground together hand in hand?" Ah, that is the simplicity of friendship!