Friends vs. "Friends"

So today's post is kind of complicated...

Kind of reflective...

Kind of...

Necessary...

So let's go...

So most days I sit in my house and I think about things... Most days my mind goes a million miles a minute and I think about more things than I care to remember. Today's thought was related to the friendships that I have. So I came to Florida A & M in the fall of 2001, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready for everything and prepared for nothing. With me, came 26 other young Miami Central Rockets coming in like a flood and taking no prisoners. Since there were so many of us, there was no need for any of us to get to know anyone else. In my apartment-style dorm in Palmetto Street South apartments, I was assigned to room with a friend I had known since elementary school. There were also four other women in our "house" and we all got to know each other pretty well. We were pretty far from campus so we very rarely came to the top of the Hill to participate in any freshmen activities. Fast forward five years later, I was re-enrolling in classes at the university and 95% of my old friends were gone. The only one left was graduating in the fall of that year.

It was time to make new friends...

In the spring of the next year I applied for a position on the Executive branch of the Student Government Association. Knowing nothing about student government, except for what we had done in high school, which was nothing like the mini-government I stumbled upon on the 2nd floor of the Student Union building, I was ill-prepared for the position. I applied for a secretary position and received deputy. Not knowing the difference until later, I accepted and began to work. Needless to say, I met a lot of people and gained new relationships, friendships, and associations.

Which brings me to the meat of this diatribe...

Are friends we meet/make in political circles really friends? Sometimes I watch the way new "friends" interact with each other and my answer is a resounding, "no." The discussions I have with new circle and nowhere near the life-changing conversations I used to have. Don't get me wrong, I love many of new friends but most times it just does not feel the same way it used to. I feel like many of these "friendships" are solely surface and convenience associations. Can I pour my heart out? Maybe. Can I share my secrets? Better question, after I share, will it still be a secret? If I were pregnant, who would I call? If I got arrested, would it become a trending topic on Twitter?

Simply put, I miss having real friends...