Part-Time Friends
We all have many people who come and go in our lives. Some stay longer while others go just about as fast as they came. Then there are those that we start to call friends. I wrote another post about the meaning of the word friend, but I have slightly changed my thoughts on it.
I still believe that people use the word too loosely, but I think there is some gray area. This area is somewhere between someone being your friend and someone who is just an acquaintance. I think a good term to use to describe people who fall into this area is “Part Time Friend”. These are people who you actually enjoy spending time with and can trust to a degree. Unfortunately these people are normally unreliable and can not be counted on when it is important. That’s why they either don’t transition into a true friend or fall out from being a friend.
These part-time friends can be fun though. These normally are the ones that will party with you or go out and get crazy on a drinking night. I’m sure you can picture those people now. Those are part-time friends. Maybe you can also think of friends that only talk to you when they need something or only do things with you when they have nothing else to do. Those also would be part-time friends. Those friends aren’t that fun and can sometimes be very frustrating. So why do we keep these people in our lives?
Sometimes these friends may have been true friends or at least better friends, but over time they have drifted into this part-time status. It may be hard to see at first because you still want to see them as they once were. If really think about it though, they probably wouldn’t become your friend had you just met them recently. It is kind of sad to think about though because it never feels good to lose a friend.
Part time friends may serve a purpose, but the more I think about it the more I’m not sure I need them in my life. I like to surround myself with people I know I can count on and that I know they will at least be completely honest with me. In the end I think it is better to have quality friends rather than a large quantity of friends.
