Have you ever found yourself wondering why people you spent so much fun time with in the past suddenly just seem not to be your cup of tea any more? I’ve found myself in this situation a couple of times and questioned myself a lot, i just couldn’t get my head around it and thought it was something bad on my part.
There’s a difference between moving away from a job or home or even leaving University when it gets hard to make the effort to stay in touch with people you saw on a daily basis. This especially so in the times before true portable mobiles (as opposed to the phone bricks) were commercially available.
As we grow in life and go through our individual experiences that end up defining us, we start to develop boundaries and different interests. These may mean that we are now interacting with different groups of people and this occupies the majority of our time.
This is all fine if our former circle also grow, either with us or in different directions themselves. but this is not always the case. Take the stereotypical example of someone who has always lived in a town, had the same job for 20 years and has an established routine that included seeing you every Saturday afternoon in the local. When you suddenly stop going because you’re now spending weekends working on the classic car you bought, they can see this as you rejecting them.
Even telling them about your new found interest won’t necessarily mean they will understand but it’s always good to explain to people why you’ve gone under the radar. It’s too easy for people to assume they’ve done something wrong and misunderstandings should be resolved or at least moved away from.
It’s ok to move on in our life; we only get the one play and it’s up to us to determine our journey. We should never be afraid to pull off at the next junction.
Have you ever felt that you were letting people down by not staying in touch?
