Childhood friendships

When you were a kid, how well did you get along with other kids your age? Did you have friends, or more of a loner? Shy or outgoing? Leader or follower? Did you like to play the same games as the other kids?

I had friends, varying in numbers. When I went to school, it could be the entire class, but not for sustained periods. People usually ended up disliking me after the initial contact as I always took the role of leader, and I remember this often leading to conflict. I moved and changed schools consistently however so it wasn't an issue. I did keep a pool of friends I still have light contact with today though.

I had a lot of friends in a lot of different cliques and grades. It seemed like every few months i'd switch to have a new "main" group of friends who i hang out with.

Come junior year of high school, everyone was hanging with everyone, so i was just the life of the party, knowing everyone very well.

A floater. A chameleon. A leader and innovator in fashion, socialization and humor.

Right now, i have only one best friend. He gives, a lot.

I demand a lot from close friends.

Knoxious wrote:I demand a lot from close friends.

Like what? Examples, please.

Kimera wrote:When you were a kid, how well did you get along with other kids your age? Did you have friends, or more of a loner? Shy or outgoing? Leader or follower? Did you like to play the same games as the other kids?

I would say I went through a few different stages at different ages, but generally speaking I got along good with a small group and not so much with everyone else.

I had friends but I tended to want to be a loner.

I was mostly shy or quiet when I was small but I went through an outgoing and rebellious stage in my teen years.

I did my own thing if other people wanted in that was cool if not that was fine too. I would say I tended to lead whatever I was doing but it was usually something I was into and knew more about than my friends.

ZombieZ wrote:I was mostly shy or quiet when I was small but I went through an outgoing and rebellious stage in my teen years.

Was there anything specific you can recall that triggered that change?

I’ve been told that as a young kid I was confident, argumentative, and I had to have my way. I don’t really remember. I know I had a few close friends and I liked to be the leader or I’d just play by myself. At that age I think I had more use for books than for friends anyway. Plus, my mom never took me shopping so I wore the most godawful clothing. An older cousin once said she used to feel so bad for us (my brother and I) because of how my mother dressed us.

In high school I had a close-knit group of friends. Still in touch with a few of them. Also got a job after school so I could buy myself some decent things to wear.

I went through a rebellious stage as a teenager, too. Made my parents crazy.

I’m not sure exactly what caused a change, I remember getting pushed around in JR high by JRs and SRs and decided one day I wasn’t going to take their $#%^ and it sort of snowballed but it passed. I could be confrontational even when I was young if something irked me. It’s really funny you say that about the clothing I had the worst clothes ever and the haircuts I used to get, my god should have been called child abuse. I wouldn’t be seen dead with one of those now.

Guys can get away with bad clothing more than girls, though. The pressure to be cool and on trend kicks in early and girls can be rough. I think my wardrobe looked like it came from a thrift store lol. My mother just wouldn’t spend money on me.

Bad hair, though. That’s rough, Z. Glad you got that sorted out.