The Premise of 52 New Friends

Last fall I had a revelation.  Something wonderful happened to me…and I had no one to share it with.

I am a forty-two year old, divorced, childless woman with a family that has done a very good job at alienating themselves from me.  If life were a big, patchwork quilt, I feel like my portion is a single, solitary patch that has been left on the floor and forgotten. 

And in quiet moments, I am lonely. 

I’m embarrassed to admit it but sometimes, I even feel sorry for myself.  Silence gives you plenty of time to pick apart all your flaws. 

Over the past two years, I’ve done a lot of online dating but frankly, I think the over-forty-and-single category needs more therapy than they do dates.  I’ll even include myself in that observation. 

And then, a few weeks ago, I went to a charity walk for suicide prevention.  I told myself I was there to support other people but as I stood in the crowd of nearly two thousand people who had gathered, I realized there are people who leave this world because they, too, pick apart their flaws in silence and in isolation…and little do they realize how much they are missed.  Maybe this world needs fewer meaningless dates and more real connections.  And maybe that needs to start with me.

So, for 2018, I have made a goal of developing 52 new connections in my life.  I will call them friends.  In this social experiment, I am hoping I can meet interesting people who may be different from me.  My intention is to listen and maybe enrich their life in some way, although, I would be open and grateful if they enriched mine.  And I’m going to blog about it each week which frankly, is a little unnerving.  I’m a planner and I have no idea where this is going to go.   But life is an adventure.  And so it begins…