THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACQUAINTANCES, FRIENDS, FAKE FRIENDS, TRUE FRIENDS

Acquaintances. Friends. Fake friends. True friends. I have few of each. What I have the fewest of are true friends. I can count them all on one hand. And there are those who I thought were true friends who then turned to fake friends, and then acquaintances. And then I eventually had to disassociate myself from them completely because they were toxic people.

Here are some definitions from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary (Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary)

Acquaintance – “a person whom one knows but who is not a particularly close friend”

Friend - one attached to another by affection or esteem; a favored companion

Fake - a worthless imitation passed off as genuine; not true, real, or genuine

True - in accordance with fact or reality; without deviation

Those definitions make you re-think the people who are in your life. It’s made me realize that most of the people in my life are acquaintances. Most are not friends. Hardly any are true friends. Probably a big reason why I’m an introverted extrovert. I love being around people. I consider myself to be a people person by nature. However, I don’t want to associate with the fake friends. No reason for me to. Why should I be around people who aren’t going to be true to me.

Acquaintances are just slightly different. I consider those people to be ones who I see in passing every so often. They don’t know much about it. I don’t know much about them. And I’m ok with that. I recently started a new job. Those co-workers are acquaintances. I can’t consider them friends because I’ve already caught them in a few lies. I don’t need liars as friends. I don’t want liars as friends.

Even some of my fake friends have lied to me. I’ve started cutting ties with those people as well. I don’t want liars in my life. All they cause is drama.

I can count my real friends on one hand. It’s good that I keep my circle small though. I’m ok with that. When I was younger, I wanted so many friends. It was important to me to be popular. But that’s when I was younger. Now, in my 40s, I don’t care about being popular. I don’t want to deal with the drama that comes with popularity. Things get complicated. And I’ve come to realize that those who have such a dire need to become popular and maintain that popularity, usually have a low self esteem and they don’t do things to make themselves happy, but instead they do things to make others happy. When you focus on making others happy, you end up losing yourself.

Focus on yourself. Don’t care what others think of you. Your acquaintances opinions shouldn’t matter; they’re not living your life. Your fake friends should have no say in your life; if they don’t like what you do – who cares? Your real friends will be behind you all the time. Yes, they might have their opinions, but they won’t get mad at you for don’t things that you feel in your heart to be right.

You’re the one living your life. You will suffer the consequences if you make a bad/wrong decision. You’re paying your bills. No one else. You and you alone.

There are people at my job that don’t like me. That’s fine. I really don’t care. Did it sting at first? Yes, of course. But now, I don’t care. I have my own life to live, and I know that they’re not my real friends anyway. So why should I care what they think of me. So when I’m at work, I do my job, and then I go home. I’m respectful to them, and I’ll work with them – but you won’t find me with them outside of work hours. No reason for me to. If that makes me a bad person, then so be it.

There are real friends who turned into fake friends who then turned into acquaintances who turned into people who I want no association with whatsoever. I try to keep those people out of my life. I have no choice but to run into them every so often. But I don’t speak to them unless they speak to me first. Because I want NOTHING to do with them.

People need to stop worrying so much about what others think of them. Just as long as you’re happy – that’s all that matters.