The topic of friends is actually one that I am very interested in, especially due to the fact that I had recently mentioned in a post my lack of friends, and my desire to have more close friends.
But you see, if there's one thing I realized I didn't mention in that post, it is that when I say I do not have friends, I do not mean it literally. Of course, there are people in my life, and many of these people consider themselves to be my friends and vice versa.
When it comes to friendship, I believe there are various stages to it. There are people who are just acquaintances, people we will say hi to if we saw them in a random gathering, just not to feel alone and awkward. Then there are the guys who know you to an extent, guys who could come hang outside your home to talk, argue and just have a good time, but you wouldn't be comfortable with them spending the night at your place.
Then there are the guys who can always visit, feel free at your place and hangout whenever. When I say I don't have friends, the last one is exactly what I'm referring to, because I happen to know a lot of the other two groups, and to me, these guys are just people that I know but not necessarily my friends.
The good thing about having them in groups like this is that it also helps me to know who gets prioritised and who doesn't, it helps me navigates everything. And the reason I say that is because I've come to realize that if you're not that close to me, I most definitely wouldn't care about your beliefs because if it doesn't sit well with me, I could always find a way to make sure it doesn't affect me in any way possible.
I once told a story about a neighbour of mine who I found out could be easily influenced and used to make his decisions based on what the majority decides, and he never really has an opinion of his own. Ever since I found that out, I immediately started being careful about certain things that I do or say in his presence, and I know most people will think that something like that might be hard to do, especially if he's always around with my other close friends.
But for me, it's a completely different case because these things comes easy to me and also, if there's one thing I always make sure to avoid, it is something that even has the slightest potential of bringing me problem in the future, especially something as unimportant as this.
It's either that or I could completely stop being around you and would just stick to the occasional hellos. As for my close friends, be a use you even get to be that close to me, there are certain things that just has to check out on both our ends, which is probably why I have fewer close friends because I don't just bring anyone into the inner circle.
But of course, there have been times when my friends and I have all had different opinions and ideal on certain issues, it's normal and isn't something that I worry about so much because at the end of the day, we mostly always settle for the most logical thing and I think that's why I like them so much because no matter how different our opinions might be, we're always open to listen to the other person.