I’m amazed at how quickly my little girl can make friends. She thinks nothing of walking up to kids who are total strangers or sitting next to them and introducing herself. She’s, also, homeschooled, so she’s used to hanging out with a large group of kids in a wide range of ages.
She has become a little more cautious as she gets older,, though. She’s discovered that the older kids get the more clique-ish they can become, and I’ve witnessed on more than a few occasions, a group of girls giving her a weird look, as if strolling over, being friendly and extending oneself to another was some kind of freakish aberration. What’s sad is that to them it probably is.
But today, at a Steven Courtney show for a summer reading program sponsored by our library system , I saw how she still has that knack for connecting with others. And I thought, how brave.
It really is, you know. To simply make a friend nowadays. In a way we make things more complicated with our fears of rejection or worse yet “looking stupid”. And not always without good reason. The responses we can get can be less than encouraging and just downright mean.
It’s true, cliques or the clique mentality can hurt a lot of people, but not just those who are left on the outside. Those inside, too, by depriving them of the opportunity to get to know some really wonderful people behind those friendly smiles and warm personalities.
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