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Showing posts from April, 2021

Sorry, The Position's Been Filled

I didn’t have many friends as a child. It wasn’t for lack of interest. Every day, I went to school and surveyed a playground of peers, many of whom seemed like they’d be fun to hang out with. As far as I can recall, that was my sole criterion. The fact that most of them didn’t think I would be fun to hang out with has perplexed me for 40+ years and is also the likely source of all my adult insecurities, but that’s another essay for another time. Point is, I didn’t think about who I wanted to be friends with in elementary school. We were friends or we weren’t. Liked each other or didn’t. As I aged, my friend selection process didn’t change very much. Into high school, college, and well into my 20s and 30s, people entered my life and we bonded deeply or connected briefly or ignored each other like people in line for a Cinnabon at McCarran Airport.  Around the time I hit my late 30s, something shifted. No longer did I meet peers on playgrounds, We didn’t mix in classrooms, dorms, quads,