Random Thoughts About Friends

Here are some ultra random thoughts about friends.

This semester, since everyone has an elective, you definitely see the cohesiveness of our sections disintegrate. Not quite fully yet, but people are definitely off doing their own things more and more.

J and I don't hang out as much as we used to. Partly this is due to our schedules, and our different study styles. J pratically lives in the library, and works very hard (probably much harder than me). But also, we don't have lunch as often b/c this semester I almost never eat at the student cafeteria, whereas J eats there a lot.

We still hang out a lot over the weekend, but we are not as inseparable as we used to be. Perhaps it's a good thing. But I should make more of an effort to eat with her.

On the other hand, ABS and I hang out more and more. We are both contemplative, intellectual (yes, if you can believe it, we both kinda enjoy thinking about legal problems, though I know I don't show this side of me too much in these posts -- perhaps I will eventually), academically inclined, and have very similar temperaments. We are both quirky and irreverent in the same way, and can laugh about little things for hours. Of all the people in the section, he knows me best, and I feel the most relaxed with him.

One thing I do worry about is that we have simliar life goals, or at least similar enough so that we'd be competing for many of the same things. I worry that we will eventually become competitors in something and this will sour our friendship. I also worry that next year we won't be as close as this year, and won't be able to hang out as much. The other day, we tallied up everything we want to do next year and estimated how much time it would take. The conclusion, we'd be working like 70 hours per week!

I have grown apart from S, and IH and AHH and others. Partly it's because they are all a lot younger than I am, and partly I think I am tiring of the constantly drinking constantly drunk life style. I'm discovering my interests in law, and more and more I like spending time thinking about that. I also think that at this point, the "cliques" in the sections have formed enough and everyone is more socially secure that they are now letting their true selves show a bit, and also have less patience with people who don't exactly jibe with them, whereas before they would be more willing to compromise... I think I am definitely this way myself. I am constantly aware of how young (read: immature) S and his friends are. It's not necessariliy a bad thing. In fact often I'm pretty immature myself. But I feel like I"m going through a more contemplative stage right now, and have less patience for some of the antics they pull.

I do miss those times in the beginnign when S and I would have these long conversations though. I suppose all friendshps go through these phases and perhaps the pendulum will swing the other way eventually.