I want to focus on the topic of friendship. I am at a different point in my life than I was in high school/college and those friends have moved away. I am now in the process of wanting to start building new friendships and reevaluate my thoughts about “friendship”….really clean up my thoughts and expectations and be intentional in my choosing of who I call “friend” and what I want that to look like in my life.

What questions I can think on or tips on how to get started with examining this? I am considering doing a thought download where I list all my expectations and beliefs about friendship, examining those and deciding if I want to keep them, and then practicing my new or kept thoughts. But I worry that by picking and choosing what I want in a friend could become this checklist/manual for people. What is the difference between a manual and personal preference? Could you provide some other things for me to consider in addition to that?

Lastly, I know these labels such as friend and acquaintance are just thoughts and not circumstances. But is labeling people as one or the other just a way of saying who follows one manual closer than the other? In theory then, if we “threw away” all of our manuals for people, technically everyone we think about could “be our friend” then, right?

I know the simple answer is that we choose who we want to love and who we want to call a friend, but I want to go deeper than just surface level with this.

That was like 10 questions in one, but I’m hoping it made sense.

Thanks!