cybervegan on Nostr: nprofile1q…ayrqr ActuallyAutistic group I feel you there. I spent about 20 years ...
nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqv9kwz7fang4ehjwrstzy55zdlm57ht6rqtlzz4x73q9hqn7gpjjqkayrqr (nprofile…yrqr) ActuallyAutistic group (nprofile…67cd) I feel you there. I spent about 20 years without friends, or at least, without my OWN friends - all my "friends" were workmates with some shared interests or my partner's friends' partners. Friendship rarely went beyond social visits orchestrated by her or her friends - I was just "there". I'd moved away from my hometown, to a different culture, 300 miles north (Plymouth to Birkenhead) for that relationship, and had largely lost contact with childhood friends from home. It kind of didn't bother me much at the time, but looking back, I operated in a sort of vacuum.
Anyway, time passed, that relationship died, and I found new love, with a more supportive partner, in yet another town (Telford) and got married. Obviously, my life partner is a friend, but not the same kind. In 2017, I had this harebrained idea to start up a makerspace, and followed through with it. Although it is currently on ice because *reasons*, I still have a small core of truly my own friends, from it. We help each other out with projects, chat about this and that, and share ideas and aspirations. None of these guys are massive social butterflies, but we share interests and pool our skills and tools; it's mutual and "nice". Most of them are neurodivergent too - bonus!
Also, as an offshoot of the makerspace, I also made other friends that interacted with the space, but weren't directly involved in it, like the Climate Action Hub, Men's Shed and Repair Cafe.
I don't think it's a "traditional" definition of friendship, but it works for me.
Anyway, time passed, that relationship died, and I found new love, with a more supportive partner, in yet another town (Telford) and got married. Obviously, my life partner is a friend, but not the same kind. In 2017, I had this harebrained idea to start up a makerspace, and followed through with it. Although it is currently on ice because *reasons*, I still have a small core of truly my own friends, from it. We help each other out with projects, chat about this and that, and share ideas and aspirations. None of these guys are massive social butterflies, but we share interests and pool our skills and tools; it's mutual and "nice". Most of them are neurodivergent too - bonus!
Also, as an offshoot of the makerspace, I also made other friends that interacted with the space, but weren't directly involved in it, like the Climate Action Hub, Men's Shed and Repair Cafe.
I don't think it's a "traditional" definition of friendship, but it works for me.