There are different kinds of friendships. There's acquaintances, school friends, work friends, childhood friends and of course, best friends. The kinds of friendships you have and make can greatly impact your life, in fact, in fact, friends are one of the most influential parts of growing up.
People with different personality types prefer different sorts of friendships, too. Some prefer to have one or two close friends, others have a large group of friends that they spend their entire lives within. However, people tend to not notice that there is another type of friend, the people who 'float' between different groups of friends.
I have found that I have always been a bit of a floater. I never had one or two best friends that I could always go to, and I never belonged to one large group of friends. Instead, I just find myself making friends apart of different groups of friends.
This meant that I have always had friends in different places. For example, I have always had friends I talk about sports with, friends in my classes, friends I have known from different levels of schooling, my music friends and my 'nerd' friends.
Throughout middle school, high school and now college, I have found my circle of friends to be constantly changing consisting of many different people. I have never exactly had a 'squad' of my own but personally, I find it easier, and less stressful to maintain strong friendships this way.
Of course, I have a couple of people that I consider to be closer to me than some of my other friends, but this really doesn't change the dynamic of how I make and keep friendships. Personally, I think that floating between friend groups is underrated.
Being a floater definitely gives off a sense of independence and more options amongst things to do and people to spend time with. I know that I can always contact different people from different parts of my life to do different things with.
I love having people that I can relate to in different ways and that I share different interests with. I also like having people in my life who I can value for different, but also important reasons. There are more chances to help and be helped.
Though there are many positives to floating between friend groups, there are also some negative things. For example, it can get very lonely. Sometimes it gets hard to watch your friends have their own, main groups who they can spend all of their time with.
Personally, sometimes when I hang out with them and the rest of their respective friend group, it is easy to tell that I don't belong and I feel left out. Besides this, I am happy to have such a diverse bunch of friends in different groups and I wouldn't want it any other way.
