I don’t know if you are like me, you’ll finally meet up with that friend you haven’t seen in forever and talk about how you need to see each other more often, only to wait another year before you see each other again. It took me until I was 39 to finally break this cycle.

I’ve gotten in the habit of meeting up with friends and scheduling in the next time we will see each other again, and I commit to not rescheduling. Sometimes, I feel rather lame for scheduling in friends, but this is the reality of life. I don’t have friendships (mostly proximity) where friends can just come by my house and hang out.

Maybe it’s the general theme of disconnection; we use the excuse of young kids to self-isolate. It’s so easy to become consumed with the life of your kids, taking them to and from school and sports as a reason not to invest in hanging out with your friends. At the same time, seeing your friends is like a breath of fresh air in your life, but something about making it happen feels hard.

This is something I will continue to work on this year. Scheduling in friend time consistently, but also adventuring out. Maybe a night where we dress up and go out or maybe we head out for a hike.

How do you keep your friendships alive?