Not Excluding New Friends

Currently, I'm fairly close with my group of friends. Not close as is in talking about personal problems (not for me, anyway. Perhaps one of these days?), or stopping from being awkward, but enough that if we are doing something I'm probably going to be invited. I don't have to worry about feeling "left out" or things like that. But I've beginning to wonder lately, have I been extending the same luxury to people I'm not as close to. If I'm starting to feel restricted to not let people into my "group of friends" who aren't in there already. If perhaps I should start inviting people to hang out with the "gang" even if I'm not best friends with them already.

Don't get me wrong, there is a BIG difference between thinking "that person is alone all the time. I should try to do this for them because they are an obviously miserable person that I should pity" and "I should be careful to not leave this super special awesome person from all this fun". Basically, any pity in this situation sort of ruins it. But still, it's kind of a big deal to try to extend beyond a defined group of "friends" to perhaps some other people who have been somewhat excluded. Okay, many of my "close" friends are in Mock Trial, and often we will get together during times convenient to Mock Trial, such as before. But for an example, let's take Cole. He's a pretty cool guy to hang around with, and he's on our Mock Trial team. But with the exception of today, we haven't really thought to ask him to hang out. Why not? I have no excuse. And what about Steven? The only time we really hanged around with him was when he tagged along with us to McDonalds to work on Mock Trial with Mark. But I can't give you a reason for why we don't do that more often.

I'm not so presumptuous to think that I am the only option some people have for social opportunities. All I know is that I should do my best to be the sort of person who reaches out to others. You know, a friendly person. Oh wait, that might be going too far. Does that mean I have to be optimistic too? Nice? Polite? Gah, I can't stand the thought.

I think back to when I was younger, such as ninth grade. I craved socializing with friends, and I would have snapped up opportunities such as these without hesitation. And yet I really didn't "hang" around with people much, just for the point of hanging out. Why? Because I hadn't gotten to know people at Marion very well. In the same way, people hadn't really gotten to know me. What if things had been different? What if this group of friends I have now had joined together two years ago instead of mostly just this year? We would have gained so many memories.