I have always found it easier to gel with males than females and I mean in a strictly platonic way :). Some of my female friends are wonderful too ! I just connect better with males than females.
As I graduated from being a carefree student and professional to a married woman with kids, my friendships got modified too. Earlier, it had to be a hip gang with intelligent and smart people 🙂 in order to seem glamorous. There was a lot of sharing which took place then and we relied a lot on each other’s advice and views. Now, it is sensible and interesting people not necessarily very glamorous but with whom I can gel. Nowadays, the emphasis is more on sharing but less on relying. I am anyway a private person and very rarely share any intimate details.
What motivates us to be friends with someone? For me surely, an intelligent person with loads of sense of humor and a caring and sensitive nature. These days I am less judgemental and do get along with a myriad variety of people. I think it is also important for us women to have girlie sessions and for men to have boys nights out to let off steam. Of course, we socialize as a couple too with families but those are such pains with kids driving us up the wall, really.
I think as friends it is also very important to use one’s discretion and keep private details which another person has shared to one’s own selves. Many a times, I have noted with dismay that people would reveal all and sundry just for the sake of a conversation. I think in a friendship it is VERY important to be there for your friend and to be discreet about details shared.
A true friendship can enrich one’s life!
“It is a sweet thing, friendship, a dear balm,
A happy and auspicious bird of calm…”
– Shelly
“True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.”
– Charles Caleb Colton