The one that sticks with me is “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”. (I’m sorry I can’t remember where I heard the quote). I grew up in a place

The one that sticks with me is “show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”. (I’m sorry I can’t remember where I heard the quote). I grew up in a place where a lot of people were addicted to drugs and alcohol and where poverty was pretty bad. I would see how they all encouraged each other to continue on their paths to self-destruction through their friendships, and I guess I was already quite picky about who my friends were but after hearing that quote I have definitely become more picky about friendships. Then someone else once made a remark to me (which I can’t remember word for word to quote it) about watching crabs in a bucket, how they could all escape but they keep pulling each other down. Those two quotes/concepts together have meant for me, friendship is never really a strong priority. I’m really not interested in feeling popular, and I don’t tend to struggle with loneliness because I see people all the time. I also have family members that I’m extremely close to. Especially my brother - who just gets me. I grew up a bit of a loner and I struggled to make friends as a kid because I was super shy. People never realised I was shy because I was also super loud and talkative when I found people I felt comfortable talking to… but I generally won’t talk to new people unless they talk to me first. So maybe those quotes resonated because I was already destined to be a bit of a loner anyway and extremely selective with my friends… but I think when you think about how friendships can start to define the environments you choose to put yourself in, I think it’s a pretty life changing quote because perhaps you could change your life for the better, by changing the people you surround yourself by.