Friendships and the pandemic (233/365)
Aug. 21st, 2021 06:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartOne of the surprising delights of the last year and a bit has been the friendship that's developed between me and my two swimming friends, L (a longstanding friend who I rarely saw, even though we live in the same city) and B (a much newer friend, who I'd met a few times as part of a group and had a couple of lunchtime coffees and walks in the months between C's cancer diagnosis and the start of lockdown, as we worked near each other). What started as principally a swimming arrangement has morphed, over the course of 13 months, two lockdowns and various physical and mental health wobbles, into a close friendship and essential source of support for all of us.
I've also developed closer friendships with some of my fellow departmental administrators, as we've made use of both Teams calls and chat to share our frustrations and help each other through an incredibly tough time, workwise.
My core existing friendships, many of which date back to LJ days, are, I think, still what they always were, and if I'm sorry to have gone so long without seeing people, the online interaction is always there.
The thing I do regret, rather, is the friendships that were very much based around seeing each other, even if infrequently, at yarn shows or conventions, and which have waned without that connection. And the newish friendships, the people I'd met and liked and looked forward to seeing again and building a deeper connection with, which probably won't now happen because we've all been changed by the last eighteen months and we can't just pick up from where we left off because that place, and those people, don't exist any more, and where we are now is much further apart than we were back then. (Though who knows but that we might not come back into step again, in another few years, when the ability to meet in person remains? Perhaps this is only a temporary halt, and not the loss of an opportunity which will never return.)
I've also developed closer friendships with some of my fellow departmental administrators, as we've made use of both Teams calls and chat to share our frustrations and help each other through an incredibly tough time, workwise.
My core existing friendships, many of which date back to LJ days, are, I think, still what they always were, and if I'm sorry to have gone so long without seeing people, the online interaction is always there.
The thing I do regret, rather, is the friendships that were very much based around seeing each other, even if infrequently, at yarn shows or conventions, and which have waned without that connection. And the newish friendships, the people I'd met and liked and looked forward to seeing again and building a deeper connection with, which probably won't now happen because we've all been changed by the last eighteen months and we can't just pick up from where we left off because that place, and those people, don't exist any more, and where we are now is much further apart than we were back then. (Though who knows but that we might not come back into step again, in another few years, when the ability to meet in person remains? Perhaps this is only a temporary halt, and not the loss of an opportunity which will never return.)
