Magic of friendship

I never know what the etiquette is on reposting stuff that someone did on DeviantArt or Tumblr (The artist here posted it both places).

But I love this little comic. It's kind of sad at its base, but also hopeful. The thing about it - I have felt ALL those things at different points in my recent life: I love what I do (teaching college) but I'm still sometimes sad (over what education seems to be becoming, over students who seem to prefer the easy way out than doing hard work). I sometimes smile when I'm scared, though that seems less often than the others; the things I might be scared but need to smile through (public speaking ) really don't scare me.  I often feel alone in groups of people because they may all share some characteristic (e.g., graduated from the same high school and are talking about people I've never met). I sometimes feel like people don't hear me even when I speak (I think a lot of women, or perhaps a lot of somewhat soft-spoken people, have this issue). I sometimes feel kind of useless even though I know people depend on me. And feeling important - well, I have a lot of mixed feelings on that. We're all important and valued because we exist, because I believe we're children of God*, but I often feel unimportant to other people around me. Or like my concerns should matter less than those of others.

(*One big reason why I'm so active in my church: the ways that the world tells me I'm weird or don't matter are precisely the ways that people in the church seem to value me and tell or show me I'm okay.)

I will say I wish I had a group of friends as close and tight as those the pastel cartoon ponies have...I don't. I find friendships as an adult challenging because everyone is so busy, and in some cases I feel as if there's already a circle of friends established in a place, and it's a little closed....and it's hard for me to break into it, because I feel a bit like, "These people already have each other as friends, they don't need me butting in. They have a history together."

Maybe that's true of all adults, I don't know.