Friends, Come and Go

Through primary and secondary, I had my friend group change from 15 people to 5. With that number I've only had one friend remain with me from the age of 6 to 18 but still even with that one friend staying it's been a shaky road.

I'll start from the beginning. At the start of primary I didn't really know what a friend was, I had people I liked to be around who were nice and made me happy. However, as I grew up I saw the bigger your friend group was the more popular you were. When you are younger you don't see the bigger picture, you crave to be a part of the popular clique.

So that is what I did I became friends with 'popular' people for about 6 years of my life. At that point I loved it, I was having sleepovers, days out, in a big group chat chatting for hours. Do you remember the scenes in movies where the popular crowd would walk in and they had a designated spot to sit that's what it was like, we had somewhere in the cafeteria and outside. It was like the movie Mean Girls, I understand the title now because, nearing the end of primary it turned sour.

I was no longer invited to events, group chats were made without me and when sat at that table at lunch I had no idea what they were talking about when I tried to get involved they would ignore me. I saw photos of them having fun at each other’s houses, that's when it clicked I don't want to be friends with people who don't appreciate who I am.

It got to secondary, and right away I stayed far away from them. I found a new friend who again was nice at the beginning but turned way worse at the end, getting told to die and being called a cow and a pig. It was trial and error for a while but that was okay because I found my friends in the end, it was a rocky road. And yes people who were in my friend group came and went, but that was just because they were still on their journey to find the friend they needed.

I wouldn't change my friends for the world. Even though we have left secondary for college, university, or jobs we always meet up and go out to the cinema, or for a meal. So it is okay if you haven't found your tribe yet, you will and it will be great. If anyone wants to talk just reach out via email, Instagram or TikTok all linked on my website.