It can be tough to make, and to keep, life-long friends

It can be tough to make, and to keep, life-long friends

By Margie Taylor

…

I’ve always found friendship complicated. I wish I could say I was one of those people who’ve never lost a friend but I can’t. I’ve lost more than a few.

Making friends, and keeping them, is a learned skill. It comes more naturally to some than to others. I remember as a child I was often the outsider, standing apart from the group of kids hanging from the monkey bars, storming across the playground, huddled in cliques sharing secrets. Clusters of children always intimidated me; it would never occur to me to approach them. I waited to be invited and usually wasn’t.

This sense of apartness has followed me into adulthood. I’m still, for the most part, waiting to be asked.