Daily writing prompt
What skill would you like to learn?
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I have felt my age lately.

I’ve lost fitness.

I’ve gained weight.

The biggest one, in my opinion, is that I’ve lost confidence in many things.

I’ve not “found my people” at work. Now, after working in a school for 24 years, you just become part of the fabric, and I knew leaving would be tough.

But not this tough.

A former co-worker of mine has said the same thing, that they feel as though they are just doing their job without any time to hang out there.

Again, I knew this coming in. My wife was surprised I made the move because of that fact. I’m painfully introverted, and left to my own devices, I’ll dive into grading papers or looking through social studies sites vs. going in the hallway to be social.

SIDE NOTE: As a teacher, if you use Google Classroom, they’ve added Notebook LM to that suite. Holy crap. I’ve started plugging sites I use to teach a social studies unit into that AI, and wow, it’s developing all sorts of things for me, using the information from webpages AND YouTube. While I can’t say how good the compilation is yet, I’m impressed with what I have gotten out so far. Check it out.

Ok, back to the task at hand.

So, what skill would you like to learn? At 54, this seems weird, but just how to find and maintain friendships over multiple places. Our best friends are a three-hour drive away. Another set of close friends is getting ready to move four hours away. One daughter lives 14 hours away, and the other three. I’ve loved my time here, but don’t feel like I’ve ever fit, and the older I get, the more that feeling weighs heavily.

Just the ability to shoot the breeze, to invite someone over for a dinner, or even a drink. We live in the country, so there is that isolation built in, and honestly, that’s not the problem. Everyone drives here, so it is not a big deal to drive 30 minutes for dinner.

I don’t know, this is kind of rambly, but I think more people feel this way than we recognize. It’s hard today to find and maintain friendships. Everyone is so busy, whether it’s kids, family, or just the need to feel productive. We are hitting that part of our lives where being busy isn’t a great thing.

SIDE NOTE: I have Grammarly on my computer, and damn, she loves her commas.

Back again. So, this old dog would love to learn the art of the relationship. Some days, it’s just nice to have someone you can share the heavy stuff with who is not your spouse or significant other.

Will I learn it? Highly doubtful (the introversion comes off as being “aloof” according to a local town member *sigh*), but I can hope.

In the times we are living, sometimes hope is all you have.