Opening Up To Different Perspectives.......

From my youth through my high school days, I didn't really have a lot of close friends.  I had some buddies I hung out with but not being with the popular crowd, I didn't really have someone I talked to consistently about "life issues".

Toward the end of my high school years, I finally found one really good friend and we remained close for many years. I talked to this particular friend about most (if not all) of my life issues for the duration of our friendship.   Alas, as this friend lived in the East Coast, distance and life in general spelled the end of this particular friendship.

Unlike my younger days, I had met some other friends throughout my college years and many of them remain my friends today.  These friends are usually the first ones I go to and discuss my life issues with.   As I have grown up and matured, I realized I don't need to talk to my friends about "every thing" that happens in my life.  

However, as I have matured, I have realized that I don't have to just rely on my "close friends" for perspective on things.  I am fortunate to have a HUGE circle of people to draw from.   I can draw on my fellow basketball players or officials for perspective on things.  In fact, tonight I officiated some basketball games with a fellow official who had been laid off in January.   That was definitely a topic of discussion because of my recent layoff.

Last night, I spent a good amount of time talking to the girlfriend of one of the guys I play basketball with.  She's quite a few years younger than me but awfully mature and we had some nice discussions over a few different topics.

My friends like to make fun of me in the fact that I "talk a lot".  There is some element of truth to this as I do like talking to my friends on the phone.  What some of my friends haven't seen is that I just don't talk to "shoot the breeze".  I have realized I have a natural curiosity over many things and I can discuss almost any topic under the sun.

So while my close friends will remain my close friends, I am 100% open to talking to others about anything they want to talk about or if something catches my fancy.  It's actually quite refreshing!