{"id":606,"date":"2013-10-12T17:44:22","date_gmt":"2013-10-12T21:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chistell.com\/africanamericanfiction\/?p=606"},"modified":"2016-10-08T23:17:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T03:17:47","slug":"have-you-stopped-making-new-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chistell.com\/africanamericanfiction\/have-you-stopped-making-new-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Have you stopped making new friends?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Denise Turney<\/p>\n

It takes courage to really “<\/i>grow up”. To grow up,\u00a0 you must take on new responsibilities, start eating the fruit of your decisions. It’s how you learn and evolve.<\/p>\n

Depending on decisions you’ve made thus far, it may also mean taking care of and guiding your children. That’s not all. By the time you reach your mid-30s, there’s a chance that you’ve taken on a mortgage, not to mention having health insurance premiums, household expenses and an auto loan to pay for.\u00a0ge to really “<\/i>grow up”. To grow up,\u00a0 you must take on new responsibilities, start eating the fruit of your decisions. It’s how you learn and evolve.<\/p>\n

No matter how old you get, you need good friends<\/strong><\/p>\n

Life fills up fast after you become an adult, and not always with responsibilities that you want. To meet those responsibilities, you might find yourself dealing with stress and anxiety. Work a typical middle or senior management job and you might have the added burden of finding time to catch up with family, not to mention friends.<\/p>\n

If you’re not careful, years could pass before you realize that you haven’t made a single new friend since high school or college. After a decade or more of living this way, greeting someone new might feel as awkward as going out on a date for the first time in 10 years.<\/p>\n

What won’t change is your hunger for friendships, the kind you write or call home about. Humans are social creatures. We love to connect with each other, engage in rich conversation, to simply be in the presence of people we trust, people we know love us. It’s these types of relationships that make facing challenges in this world easier. It’s also friendships that make personal achievements and celebrations worthwhile.<\/p>\n

As one woman shares with Redbook<\/a> when discussing her desire for rich, female friendships, “I miss that female connection.” She continues “Just being with my family doesn’t make me feel 100-percent complete.”<\/p>\n

If you’re nervous about making new friends, start small. Say hello to the first person who steps on the elevator at work or the doctor’s office with you. Keep doing this until you start to feel comfortable striking up conversations with people you haven’t met before.<\/p>\n

Join networking groups. For example, if you are passionate about arts and crafts, you could join an arts group and get together with other art lovers once a week to chat about your latest projects and to share laughs. You could also meet your next best friend while posting to a social media network or while responding to someone who leaves a comment at your blog.<\/p>\n

The important thing is to get out there. Start letting new people discover the wonder that is you. Be open to starting and developing new friendships. You’ll be glad you did. It’s what keeps Love Pour Over Me’s <\/b>Raymond Clarke going, even during the hardest times in his life.<\/p>\n

Get your copy of \u201cLove Pour Over Me\u201d Now at – <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ebookit.com\/books\/0000001582\/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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