A while ago I saw a TikTok about how, at some point, we stop experiencing life with our friends. Eventually, the dynamic shifts and spending time with friends turns into grabbing something to eat or drink and just catching each other up on what’s happened since you last saw them. Instead of actually experiencing life with them, it turns into giving them cliff notes of our lives.
After watching this TikTok, I noticed this is exactly what happened with many of my friendships, particularly with my friends from high school who I don’t see as often anymore. In high school, we spent every single day together, not just in classes, but outside of school too. Once we all graduated and went to different universities and colleges across the country, we just stopped experiencing life together. Every time we met up after graduation, we’d meet at our favourite restaurant and give everyone a recap of our lives. Once I saw that TikTok and realized that I had stopped experiencing life with my friends, I knew that had to change.
Ever since then, I’ve always tried to do something with my friends, particularly those who I don’t see as often. It doesn’t even have to be anything big. A small, fun craft, game, spontaneous adventure or whatever it is, we just something for us to do instead of just sitting there and summarizing our lives. Even these small activities and moments together allow us to continue making small memories. I’m very much aware that as we get older, start working and spread out around the world, it’s only going to get more difficult to continue experiencing life with my friends, so I want the moments when we do come together to be filled with new memories and experiencing new things together.
Whether big or small, I think one of the greatest joys in life is being able to experience it with others, no matter what you do. Experiencing life together helps to strengthen our bonds with each other. I’ve even noticed a shift between the friendships I have where we do things together versus those where our friendship seems to be just summarizing life to each other. I’m far closer with those who I experience life with, even if I’m able to actually see the friends who I tend to summarize life with more. Experiences are what strengthens our bonds and brings us closer together, helping to lead to a long and fulfilling friendship.
Life can be chaotic and filled with many hardships, making it difficult to try and navigate on our own. Experiencing life with our friends and those we love truly makes it so much better. A lot of my favourite memories have been made with my friends and I don’t want to give that up and only give each other recaps on what they’ve missed. After all, making memories and experiencing things with friends is truly what life’s all about!