New Friends

There is something to be said for new friends. Like old money and new money, there are old friends and new friends. And I have enjoyed cultivating the relationships of new friends - not because of a commonality of background, history or upbringing - but because of a mutual respect for our differences and humor in our similarities. They are the ones who really take you as you are and are not subject to the baggage of your past or the meddleings that made you who you are. These things are good and necessary, but not necessary to relive in an active conversation. You are a result of how you processed your life and what you present to new friends is the finished computer program. You can tell them how you tried a sequence and failed, how you tried another and won, but what you are is what you are and they can like you just for that. No obligation, no perpetuation, no pre-conception. Come as you are.
And you have a clean slate to be the best quality friend that you can. Sometimes the dynamics of old friendships diminish your capacity to care. Sometimes you find yourself typecast. With a new friend, you can be better or deeper, or simpler or surface floating. Whatever it is you need and want, you present yourself as such and it works with a new friend. If you need more, and you make yourself vulnerable with a new friend, you can throw out the line and they'll probably catch it because of the mutual respect no one had the chance to ruin. No one let anyone down. And when you find a new friend, at a more mature age and place in your life, it is entirely possible that no one will.