Life is too short

In my previous post, I commented that I'd only recently begun to appreciate the friendships that I have in my life. It is a very important aspect of any person's life, and one that I now cherish. Unfortunately, the flip side of this is weeding out the people who don't really care in order to spend your precious time wisely. In a fast paced world filled with deadlines, expectations, and especially technology, it's hard to tell whether someone is legitimately busy or just doesn't care enough to make the time of day for you.

So, I've created a list of clues or hints to help in this endeavor:

1) if they can't take the time to respond to a text or phone call yet constantly update their FaceBook / Instagram / Twitter, or some other form of social media (I won't even get into the social media etiquette; yes, it has its own rules),

2) if they constantly say "let's hang out!" but always seem to have plans at the last minute, or simply cancel for no apparent reason,

 3) if the other person is only interested in talking when they have a dilemma on their hands or need a ride somewhere,

4) if you're the only one asking the other person to hang out or suggesting fun grown-up playdates,

Now, I am very well aware of the fact that most of the people reading this will automatically jump to the defense of a friend they know who does one or more of these things. The excuses may be, "oh but they're tired after work," or "oh but they've had other things on their mind lately," and while this may be the case 10% of the time, if it happens repeatedly chances are they just have other priorities. So stop making excuses for people. Stop wasting the time trying to understand why it's happening (if they haven't already explained a valid reason to you, in which case be a good, patient friend) and spend time with people who actually make the effort to spend time with you.

It's surprising how different the value of relationships becomes when one does this.