Being Social a Challenge?

Being social is slowly getting to be a chore for me. It is harder than I thought to have a balanced social life. And honestly, does it matter? For some, that is an easy answer. Friends are your life. Especially, if we ask a 15 year old girl.

When I became pregnant at 21, I decided to give it all up. I left my job and as lucky as I was to make that work, staying home and going to college online was isolating. However, it enabled me to stay at home and care for my first true love. I didn't have to go through what the other moms went through when it came to leaving my child each and every day so I could make ends meet. I was fortunate. Not rich in any way, but we made it work. We counted our pennies and lived frugally. That also meant no going out. We couldn't even afford it. Plus, who would babysit!? At the time, I didn't like to ask for help.  I stopped calling people as much, and those that really cared still stopped by and checked up on me. But as fortunate as I was to have those few good friends that still stopped by. I also learned, in the most recent years that taking time outs from our kids and being social is important to keeping an own identity.

Being social to everyone is different. To some it means going to crowded venues. To others, it could be getting together with a few good friends out and about. Either way, keeping those connections and/or creating new ones is important to growing.

Ironically, I use to be a social butterfly. As the years progressed and my hormones outraged, I lost more and more due to drama and adolescent crap. That was and is ok. I have not had a "group" of friends since I was high school. And that is okay for me. I'm sure it is like that for most adults. However, my husband and I are starting to find it harder to socialize. We are fortunate for the friends we do have and wouldn't trade them for the world.

Any of you moms going through the same thing?

I think we all go through it at some point in time. Maybe even numerous times, and this phase is part of the journey of finding our identity. Who am I? Is this the core of it all, wondering who we are individually? Are we all trying to feel different and special. I believe we all are, and we all are a little lost. At the very least, that is what I'm convincing myself of right now and I am finding peace in writing this. Thank you for reading.