Making Friends

We were at the library the other day and a really nice young boy came up and started chatting with N. It turns out that they are both playing on the same t-ball team, or at least the same league, if you can call it that. I hate to confess, I didn’t recognize him, but he was really nice, and so polite and well-mannered.

Anyway, it’s nice to see N bonding with the guys, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about growing up, it’s that when you’re a guy, sports opens doors to making friends. I know that as they get older, the hyper-macho environment of jocks isn’t necessarily healthy for boys, or for that matter, society as a whole, but for N, who tends toward the shy side, it’s a great way to make buddies. This is especially true because he’s a decent athlete, and as time goes by, this will give him some credibility.

For someone like A, it’s easy to make friends, because she’s so outgoing, and loves interacting with people. N tends to ride her coattails, but at some point, it’s better for him to develop his own circle of friends, especially since he can’t hang with the big girls all the time. At some point soon, their interests will simply diverge significantly.

What was really cute was the librarian, MD, asked if the kids could water the flowers out back because of the heat, and they were happy to. When the time came to do it, however, A was all ready to go, but N decided that he’d rather hang out with his new buddy and chat. It was a one person job, and the boys watched A do it from inside. N’s buddy relayed this fact to me.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Stephen Eastop for the pic.