La Voz de Galicia – September 27, 2024 →
It’s curious to think about how complex it becomes to make friends as we get older, while at the same time reflecting on the loneliness epidemic that constantly surrounds us. I mean, we feel lonely, yet we are also unable to cultivate friendships. And I’m not talking about close friends, those we can count on one hand and who stay with us despite our contradictions, but about new friends who suddenly lead us to learn new things, to see the world from another perspective, to discover different realities.
I believe that cultivating these friendships involves many factors that are not always within our reach. One of those factors is time, or rather, “time poverty”, which is defined as “the chronic feeling of having too many things to do and not enough time to do them”. That time poverty sometimes makes it impossible for us to invest what little free time we have left in playing the friendship lottery, in dedicating it to someone we don’t know yet… Other factors include resources and energy; because if both parties interested in cultivating that possible friendship happen to have some time, they would also need to have the resources to meet up, to grab a drink, to do things together outside of their usual world, and above all, energy—lots of energy.
My previous profession led me to meet new people constantly. But now, working on my own in my own little corner, I’m more aware than ever of how important it is to force oneself, from time to time, to make time to be social outside one’s usual circle. Because when that circle we move in neither changes nor grows, our existence, unintentionally, becomes little by little, less rich and smaller.
