Girls Night Out

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No, I won’t be coming to your girls night out. Why I am not a friend for everyone and am finally okay with it.

She said, “no”, and it set me free. She said, “I’ll take my own car” and it set me free. She said, “ I don’t feel like it tonight” and my heart sang. My best friends will always be the ones that are not available.

From an early age, as women, we are taught to be kind. We are taught to be sensitive to others feelings, and sometimes that includes doing things you don’t want to do. Going places you don’t want to go and spending less time doing exactly what you would like to be doing. Our Mother’s either showed us by modeling the behavior, or by reminding us of our manners, when the time came.

I was very clear, by the time I reached my twenties, what a good friend “looks like” and with this came awareness of the guilt when I wasn’t being a “good friend”. In my head, I should be available every time you need me. I should go out to the club, even if I’d rather stay home and watch Beverly Hills 90210….and I should never, ever use complete honesty and say “because I would rather lay on the couch with a bag of Cheetos, then go to the movies.” That would just be rude, and definitely NOT a good friend.

I minded my manners, even with the conflicting messages in my head. I did this, until I met my first “adult” friend. The first woman I had met that just said “No.”

  • She said no, and didn’t wait to see how it made me feel.
  • She said no, and continued on with what she was doing.
  • She said no and it didn’t have an excuse that followed.

She didn’t want to do what I was asking…..and that was perfectly just fine by me. I will admit, at first I was a bit taken aback. “Ummmm….okay?????” I felt a bit, I don’t know……offended maybe? This behavior continued…….we had plans to go out that night…..and she would rather drive separately. When questioned, she responded, “Because when I want to leave, I want to be able to leave without having to wait if you aren’t ready.” My heart sang. YES!!! Of course, THIS!

Now in my mid-forties, women paint pottery together. They organize “girl’s night out” or go shopping together. In my inbox, I get invitations for Scentsy parties and craft nights. Ugh. I say “ugh” not because I’m a bitch (although it’s been known to happen), but because I don’t enjoy getting together with “the girls”. There, I said it. I would rather lay on my couch and watch Real Housewives scream at each other. Actually, I would rather sit in my living room and hear my kids scream at each other. Is this because I don’t like you? Probably not, it’s me…..not you.

So…..this begs the question, am I a bad friend?

To answer this question, I needed to clearly define my intentions around friendship in my forties. I talk a lot about intentions. I set my intentions for my day.  I set my intentions for my career, parenting, marriage, and in all other areas of life. Clearly, I needed to set my intentions for friendship in my forties, and that looks very different than it did in my twenties.

  • I want to be supported, and support you, with clear boundaries.
  • I want to enjoy each others company, and then go our separate ways. Not linger uncomfortably.
  • I want to put my family first, and not have to deal with your hurt feelings about it.
  • I want to say No, and not offer an excuse. Not feel pressured to make something up.
  • I want to hear what I could do…..and not what I  should do.
  • I want to talk about my kids accomplishments, without being judged.
  • I want to talk about my kids failures without being judged.
  • I want to talk, really talk and not leave our conversation with doubts.
  • I want to skip the small talk and talk about the real issues in our lives.
  • I want to take the mask off, and to see you mask free as well.
  • I want to be able to drop an F-bomb without feeling creepy (don’t judge, it’s important).
  • I want to exchange ideas about the bigger issues in life, not spend our time talking about other peoples lives.
  • I want to dream together, play together, build together and motivate each other.

By setting my intentions, it helped me to clear the cob webs in my head surrounding adult friendships. It helped me to take a more precise look at myself.  Am I offering these things as well?  Instead of sitting back and complaining about women and their idiosyncrasies, setting my intentions, forced me to get a feel for the particular kind of energy I was putting out there. Was I being honest about who I was?  Was I being honest about what I was offering? It took me years to figure out what kind of friend I am , and what kind of friends I truly want.

With my forties came many realizations, and one of them is this…..I am not the girls night out friend and that’s okay. I am the forever friend. I am the friend who comes over in her pajamas and watches trash TV with you. I am the friend that always forgives and never places guilt on you for being who you are. I am the friend you can say No to and not give an excuse. I am also the friend that will hear you, not just listen to you. I know what I have to offer in a friendship, and I know what I lack as a friend.

You are my friend if you are confident enough to deal with the fact that I don’t need you. I say that with projection….utter and total projection!   Wouldn’t you rather be wanted than needed? I would.

I am a refined taste, sort of like a good beer. I am not for everyone, but I am for the strong women! I am for the women who are just fine on their own, but enjoy a good belly laugh from time to time I am for the woman who cusses, or the woman who doesn’t, but also doesn’t shrink when she hears the word Fuck from me on occasion. I am for the woman who can talk about sex, openly, loudly and without apology. I am for the woman who doesn’t need in a group setting, but in our darkest hours we lean on each other and NEED with all of our energy, crying until there are no tears left. Make no mistake, I am there if you need me, but I am not there for the parties, not there for the girls nights and not there if my heart isn’t in it. I won’t be planning your next craft night with you and I won’t be discussing which shirt you should buy at the mall.

So, that girl I met in my twenties, taught me to accept who I am as a person, without apology. We are now best friends twenty years later, and I am there for her and she is there for me, without question. We both know this, we both accept each other’s lack of need. This has created a forever friendship.

This has also created a bar by which I measure new friendships against. I am creating my girls…….but make no mistake, you will not find us at a girls night out. You will not find us politely engaging in conversation or sitting back with hurt feelings. You will find us on a mountain top with blood running down our legs from hiking, applauding the battle scar we have created. You will find us spending time with our own families, because THAT is our priority. You will find us speaking our minds, having educated opinions and yes, sometimes hurting your feelings with our honesty. You will find us communicating in the form of texting (because phones are too much of a commitment) self- deprecating, sometimes rude, but hilarious things to each other and never apologizing for who we are…….or who we aren’t.

In determining who I am as a friend, I realized I have a sisterhood…..I just had to be me…exactly, me with no apologies. This is a sisterhood, an unbreakable sisterhood I am building with new friends and old friends who are beginning to understand who I am and who I am not. Some will stay the course, and some will not…..and I am just fine with that.