Your group of friends should be an array of personalities and experiences. Just as you do in partners, you should seek in friends people who listen, encourage your ideas, value who you are and where you want to go. The friends that keep you grounded while helping you grow; those are the ones worth keeping around. Although you will have commonalities with your friends for many reasons, they should also have distinct qualities on several levels including age. Having both younger and older friends -from other generations- will give you the various perspectives of life to help you develop into who you want to be.
With younger friends – say maybe five or more years younger depending on your age – you are introduced to a better understanding of a generation that is just recently unfolding. While your personalities mesh, you can’t help but see the lessons you’ve learned reflected back to you, because you may have already gone through their concerns or struggles. More so, you are reminded of the hopes and dreams that you may at some point have ignored because you got caught up in the “real world.” People often tend to let go of certain aspirations or desires because they think their age and responsibilities won’t allow for it -that they are “too old.” Younger friends could in essence bring back a sense of euphoric nature that you may have once had -one that truly believes there is so much time ahead of you to do anything you want. Although there are some things they are now experiencing that you may not want to go back to yourself, more often than not you will understand that regardless of what your struggle was you still survived and that is something you should be proud of -no matter what the caliber of endurance it required. All in all, younger friends will help keep your youthfulness alive -while at times making you glad you are no longer their age.
Having older friends is great for more than just the idea that you are the “younger friend” to them. Older friends may have already experienced plenty of the things you are currently going through or will go through in the future. They are often filled with wisdom and ready to impart their suggestions based on their personal history. Their advice comes with stories and examples that will assist you in making enhanced and thought out decisions. More so, older friends can teach you about the past by their story – you have to know about the past in order to be better prepared for the future. Whether it’s family and relationships or even culture and the arts – you have someone to give you first hand insight on experiences and an era you may not have taken part of. Trust that from older friends you can learn through their mistakes as well as their successes.
Having friends from various angles of the age spectrum gives you an endless amount of support. No matter what, your younger and older friends -and all friends for that matter- should help you grow.
