Friends

There has a been a lot of different times in my life where the term Friends took on a whole new meaning.. as a kid it was someone who I could “Play” with.. as I got older, it was people that I “hung” with while doing things I enjoyed (Mostly at the BMX track). Then as a “Young adult” it was more focused on the opposite Gender *wink wink*  but after getting Married and having a family, I was lost. What were friends supposed to be like in this stage in life? I would watch to see what others would consider “Friends”. Up until now, the concept of a friend came so naturally now, Sometimes it was really just the parents of our kid’s friends, that always seemed weird. Some cases,  it may  just the neighbors (ours were old enough usually to be our parents or grandparents). Then I thought I saw what I thought looked like a friendship, but later found out that they have been friends since they were kids and still live in the same neighborhood they grew up in.

I will admit, I am Weird! I am what I would think is classified as a Introvert. On top of that, I am not just a motorcyclist, I am not just a Mechanic, I am not just a father, husband, neighbor, home owner, inventor, innovator, handyman, or munitions or R/C hobbyist. I am all of these, within these interests are Sub-interests, What type of inventor, what type of R/C and so on. I enjoy associating with people involved in all of these but is it common that I am goning to meet someone that enjoyes all of these same interests and sub-interests? Not really, in fact, I don’t know that I have ever met someone that would meet that criteria.  The question I use to ask myself is am I really that weird? I Have come to the conclusion that I am not but rather we all are.

Recently I started and new mission in life, a new endeavor, a new stage in my life that I felt uncomfortable doing. The more I though about it the more I realized that there are people out there that have already been there and done that. Not just people, but people that I knew. Not the conventional way but through communities online such as Youtube, Linkedin, facebook, and so many more.. people that I could call friends. I was blown away at the response I got from so many of them when I would message them with questions. Many of these people I have only met in person 1 or 2 times, many of them I have not seen for a year or more.  Some responded with an email with tons of detail, encouragement, tips, and help of all kinds. Some responded with phone calls, not just a 5 min but there was one inpaticular that spent a lot of time almost an hour, an hour of his valuable time,  guiding me and my thoughts through processes, teaching me things that I had overlooked. WOW was the only thing I could think of.. I could only question, would I be willing to do the same.. I hope so. But I do know this.. there are some awesome people out there! When I thought the world was full of selfish people and that socity as we knew it was falling apart because social interaction had become almost obsolete, I realized that with the technology we have at our hands, scocal interaction had not stoped, it has expanded. Now friendships that used to be based on geographical location are now coming from expances of the globe..