Travel Friendships: Are Yours For A Reason, A Season, Or A Lifetime?

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.  — Anonymous

Whether you’ve heard this quote before or not, for some odd reason I feel it’s pertinent enough to talk about in a post with regard to travel friendships. As someone who travels often, I may not always be the best at maintaining friendships. There – I’ve said it and I’m just being honest. It’s not that I don’t want to, but somehow life always gets in the way. How are you with working at your friendships while at home or while you travel?

Why All The Talk About Travel Friendships?

Why bring this up? Because some people may be friendly, but at the same time they aren’t great at building or keeping friendships. If you’re someone who likes to make new friends as you travel, then you might stress unnecessarily when your expectations aren’t met. This is why that quote at the top is so important.

Are Your Friendships For A Reason, A Season, Or A Lifetime?

I think it’s completely human to want all of our friendships to be for a lifetime. However, there are two categories of friends, the reason or the season, which are the ones you wish could be for a lifetime, but somehow never turn out to be that way. You might only become friends with someone and see that the friendship sizzles out rather quickly. Or a situation presented itself at just the exact moment in time that you needed this person to be in your life. While you might feel disappointed when it doesn’t work out, it probably never would and was determined before you even thought about it.

Friendships For A Season

As I always say, don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Appreciate the friendship that you had with that person for what it was and move on.Click To Tweet

Maybe you travel to somewhere far off and exotic or maybe you’ve taken a cruise and met some incredibly nice people over drinks or playing a game. But when you’re out of that location, the friendship doesn’t seem to hold up. The “season” is your trip time and unfortunately, the season and the friendship both end upon your return home. You try to keep in contact via social media or texting, but it’s just not the same.  As I always say, don’t try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Appreciate the friendship that you had with that person for what it was and move on.

Friendships For A Reason

I always believe that these friendships are the most complicated and hardest to understand. While you may believe that these are true friendships, sometimes people enter your life to teach you some kind of a lesson. You may believe they are forever friends, but in the end we all know that they were there only for a moment in your life.

These are the kinds of friends that you start to see cracks in the relationship almost immediately, but you make excuses. For example, if a person can’t spare two minutes of their life to listen to you, can they really ever be  your friend? Probably not.

Friendships For A Lifetime

Ideally, all of our friendships are for a lifetime. The reality of life, however, might say otherwise. Those friendships that are for the long haul are ones where you and the other person are not only in some kind of sync, but you appreciate the added value this person brings to your life.

Without a doubt my friend Danielle is one of those friendships for a lifetime and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Seriously. There’s nothing I can’t say to her and vice versa and that’s so rare to find in a friend. Why else would I run through the streets of Lima, Peru in search of an alpaca stuffed animal? You only do crazy things for the people you care about most in your life.  And to think we met on Twitter and I live in the United States and she lives in England. Good friendships work regardless of geographical limitations.

Take A Chance Every Once In A While

Even if all of this talk about travel friendships or friendships in general turns you off on the idea of making new friends, don’t let it. It pays to get out of your comfort zone and try something new, even if that means the possibility of pain and rejection. You can’t experience joy or happiness in your life without having felt a little pain at the same time, right? After all, you might end up making a new friend for a lifetime if you are willing to take a chance.

What are your thoughts on travel friendships? Have you made a friend for a lifetime on your travels? Let me know in the comments below. While you’re here, discover some great destinations and travel ideas on the Travel Shop Girl website.