Nothing is more important in life than friendships. Seems a bit much to say and surely many will disagree, especially those who have very strong (and traditionally binding?) family relationships.
Each of us speaks for ourselves, based on our own experience and our own lives, so for me, friendships have been, are, and will always come first!
It's also a form of freedom when you can choose the important people in your life...
How do you go about finding new friends and creating lasting friendships in the offline world?
This is the question!
I find it quite difficult to answer such a question because my friendships were made long before there was an "online" world, which would generate the existence of the opposite, i.e. "offline".
When my friendships were cemented everything was offline, but we didn't know that!
In my time..., a common sentence among older people, a sentence that generally irritates young people.
In my time, friendships were formed mainly on the basis of common interests and hobbies. Music, film, theatre, sport, and reading are just some of the passions that give rise to friendships.
The easiest way to make friends is, of course, to find and interact with people who have similar passions to yours.
I have not consciously applied this method. Now, after friendships that are valid and true after decades, I can say that the first bond of a friendship is the shared passions and lack of constraints, i.e. the freedom that a friendship can offer.
In my case, music has brought me friends. Music is seen from different perspectives. I loved music and those who were to be my friends loved music too, but not only that. They made music, they were musicians.
Some were highly educated, conservatory graduates and others were self-taught, who taught themselves to play different instruments, and who got together to make music together.
They were musicians and I was a fan and our long time together has made us friends! A small part of them are still our best friends after 40 years.
It's true. Not all friendships last the long haul. Some are lost because of mistakes, because of misunderstandings, and because of other external causes. It's like a sieve that sifts. Only a few last, but those are for life!
An old photo from the mid 80's when I made those real friendships. A few in the photo are no longer in the circle of friends... Among them, Sorin Chifiriuc, one of the first rock stars in Romania, at that time leader of the band Roata, on the left of the photo, below. At the top of the photo, second from left to right, is Adriana Buciu, the leader and the one who created one of the few female rock bands in Romania, called Secret. Unfortunately, the two mentioned here are no longer close friends of mine. Sorin has gone to England and has broken contact with all friends and acquaintances and Adriana is relatively close, we are happy when we see or hear each other, but it is no longer a "practical" friendship, so to speak!