Making friends is a lot like taking pictures. You take many pictures and you narrow it down to a couple of pictures that fit what you like. At least that is what I have seen here in this subreddit.

I have had to go through so many people to narrow it down to my close friends. It has been a long ride since I joined reddit for the purpose to finding people in this sub. I am a girl so I did get a lot of responses and unfortunately I got many unwanted responses too such as one calling me a sl*t without any context. Between those responses I got some solid ones and we hit it off from there. Some of those that I spoke with drifted away and some I wish I had never even met. Some that left a scar on my mental health but I didn’t let that discourage me. I then tried a couple of more rounds of meeting new people to talk to. Many of those failed. I had a lot of replies but it felt like it was bothersome for them to talk to me. I initiated most of the conversation and I would just get short replies. Then I took it upon myself to not even reply to messages that had very little to go on and those who had plenty to go on about I would write massive replies. Sometimes I know it was my own fault too. I had many fallouts with people that I think would have been great to keep in contact with, people who I thought were trying harder than I was and I really do regret for the way I acted. It is a journey that I understand we are all a part of and we are all trying to figure it out and some may work and some others may not work.

All in all I found one person who I’ve been talking to from day one and they have been there through thick or thin. Another person who I talk to daily and we share a lot of dank memes. Another one who lives far but we still keep in contact through letters. Another one who we met by sharing recipes and by talking about our love for baking, we don’t talk as much as we used to but I know we are still friends. Another one who I broke my age rule (no one below 20, they were 19) but I don’t regret it because we hit it off from the start and we shared a lot in common specially our love for cars.

We shared our fears and pains together. We also shared the good times. We check on each other. Both parties initiate contact. We are curious about what each other think. We try to help out in any way we can even if just by listening or by sharing memes. However, it hasn’t always been perfect, many times we have argued and we went our separate ways for a while to cool off. But we always came around and figured things out. We discussed what bothered us and we solved them and continued talking to each other.

I am so happy to have met every single one of them and I am happy that we are still in contact after months. I always believed that I couldn’t maintain friendships. Yes it was hard at many times but no one said it would be easy. Just like pictures you take many before you narrow it down to the ones you like or dislike. You even keep some that reflect a part of you that you don’t like but it is still a nice picture to have.

This is not a post to boast about my friendships, this is a post to reflect on my year on reddit and this sub. This is a post to help others realize that yes it hard but in the end it is worth it. It is a journey you’ll have to go through and reflect a lot on yourself and others as well. I always see post highlighting the negative parts of this subreddit but I also want there to be something that highlights the good because those who want to find a friend should be encouraged and allowed to create good memories and keep those who resonate with them most.