Friends-in-Law

Your friends + my friends = our friends?

When I was eighteen I had my first real girlfriend, and waiting that long gave me a greater appreciation for her, or at least I thought it did. By that time I had finally gotten used to having friends and interacting with people on at least a surface level, so I thought I was ready to take the next step. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and it had nothing to do with her, either. On the first few dates it was great. We went out to eat, to the movies, and for a walk down by the river, and those times were easily the most incredible of my life to that point. But then she wanted me to meet her friends, which is where everything fell completely apart.

I like to think I make a good first impression, if maybe a little bit manic. You see, I have a tendency to oversell myself when I first meet people because I want them to like me so much. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. It’s all about best foot forward but instead of putting one foot across at a time, I leap over that line and it tends to intimidate people, I think. I haven’t really asked for fear that it’s the truth. Since this girl was my first girlfriend, you can imagine how over-the-top I was when I met her friends. Here’s a list of things I did:

1. I hugged each and every one of the four people who went out with us. While this seemed to be somewhat okay for the two females, I honestly think the two guys thought I was crazy. Lesson learned: that bear hugs with people you don’t know can be incredibly awkward and stunt future conversations with those people. Continue reading “Friends-in-Law”