Let’s waste some time?
I was talking to my best friend couple of weeks back and he shared with me this post that he saw on Twitter and captioned it “apt for our friendship”.
Some context. Recently I’ve started stepping out. For the first time after a long time post lockdown, I started going out mid December to meet some friends who live close by. Meeting them post work and sometimes post dinner meant meeting them around 10pm and hence I was coming back home a bit late. Sometimes 12, sometimes 1. But once it started happening regularly my parents were enraged by my behaviour. And I just couldn’t understand it. At all.
After all I was at home for months and was finally getting the chance to meet my friends. And I was taking all the necessary precautions like wearing my mask at all times, sanitizing my hands regularly, etc. (Also I was only meeting friends that took equal measures against COVID and those who lived in the same area). But my parents just couldn’t understand my rationale. And it really bothered me. Big time.
A big aspect of being 24 is getting an understanding of the world around you. Having conversations with people, debating, arguing; sometimes thinking how can someone even hold a particular opinion about some topic. But I guess that’s all part of it. Getting an understanding of the people around you brings fresh perspective of opinions that you held dear for years, makes you realise how wrong you were about something or maybe you could influence someone with your point of view. The basic point here being that a dialogue being initiated. Sharing of ideas and opinions, realising how everyone is the same but at the same time so different. But most importantly having that space to understand yourself and in the process who you are and what you think about things around you. Its at this age where everyone(especially your parents) expect you to know what you want to do for the rest of your life. Probably find the one, get married and settle down. But will that happen magically? How much space and independence are you given to figure that out on your own? And are you going to get it right the first time?
I have spent countless hours with my childhood friends and also my college friends ‘wasting time’. Time spent doing nothing. Just sacrificing so much time that you really don’t know what you spent it all for. Sometimes playing, having stupid aimless conversations, movies, dinners, FIFA, etc. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. In this process we have shared details, some intimate, some trivial about our lives that made us feel vulnerable but at the same time got us closer. Quoting the image above, “My childhood and teenage friends are dear to me in part because we’ve sacrificed countless hours to each other”. That has surely helped me develop those deep, meaningful friendships. And I’m not sure we have as much time for that anymore. Some of it being our own doing and some of it being the hazards of being an adult. But I don’t know any other way of forming deep connections with people. So, let’s waste some time?
