i (b)

mmmm. cake and icecream. it was worth it. the easiest way to make friends is if it is forced upon you. in that, I mean that if making friends was optional, then i'm sure i would have many less friends than i do. for instance, when school starts, we find ourselves among complete strangers. we are forced to be students together, and since we share that, and we realize that we'll be spending quite a bit of time together, then we can only become friends to make the day go by. not that we have to become friends, but it just happens. it's mutual. we're kids, thrust into a maelstrom of other kids. but what i'm saying is that if we weren't thrown into the school system, then we would be left to our own selves--an equally bleak alternative. but the point is not school. school passes, and we become adults. granted there is higher learning, where we often live away from home and with more complete strangers, and again, friendship happens, but only out of force. but e'en college passes, and then there is only adulthood. this is the place where force often is eradicated and from its destruction comes choice. (the college years are a blend of this phenomenon.) we get a job, we go to work, we're the young dude at the place. people aren't as "friendly" as they used to be. the choice comes with self-determination to make friends. and that choice is hard. it's not that i don't want friends, because i do want friends. it's that i don't want to make friends. i want to have friends without the work. but, i suppose, that is impossible. it's like the alchemist wanting gold from oxygen. cheat the system, paint a rock or get some pyrite, but skip the work and get to the gold.