Relationships April 23, 2018
Making new friends is your forte.
So you’re squadless.
You don’t have a group chat with a clever name that’s constantly giving you notifications. You don’t share weird weekly traditions, like going to lunch at the same time on Fridays or planning amazing events for every member’s birthday.
You may have felt bad for lacking this sense of community, or you may have envied other groups who seem to have this routine.
But you want to know the real truth?
You’re not missing out.
That’s right. You, my friend, are what I affectionately call a “people nomad.” A people nomad tends to make close connections with a lot of people, just like people with squads. However, the people they befriend would not necessarily mesh well in the same group.
Because of this, they hang out with their close friends separately. That way you’re not constantly playing the “peanut butter” role, trying to find common ground for everyone so they can get along.
It would basically be like trying to be the host of a party 24/7. And that is completely exhausting.
Now, this doesn’t mean that people nomads are bad at making new friends; in fact, they excel at it. How else would they have so many close connections with such different people?
People nomads just don’t need the people around them to be similar to them. The Nine Energies test, for example, would describe people nomads as natural energy number 2. People who test as number 2 thrive off of engagement, and they often match the energies of the people around them.
This makes them hard to label in any sort of personality test, for they will often have qualities of multiple personality types. This is why making new friends comes so naturally to people nomads; they most likely already share personality traits with just about anyone they talk to.
This doesn’t mean that people nomads consciously change who they are to please people. Everyone acts a little differently depending on who they’re talking to. For example, most people would act a little odd when meeting their favorite celebrity, as opposed to their mannerisms when relaxing with their best friend.
So maybe you don’t have a guaranteed group to celebrate that promotion with. However, you do have a lot of advantages by not having a constant friend group.
People nomads don’t have to invite six or more people to everything they plan. You don’t have to worry about people feeling left out, neglected, or intentionally excluded. Even if you happen to invite two of your friends to hang out (especially if they weren’t really close before — they just happen to have similar personality traits), they won’t expect that group to hang out every time you plan an event.
You have the freedom to experience so many different senses of humor, engaging stories, and diverse backgrounds. Now there are some incredibly diverse squads out there, don’t get me wrong. You just have a head start on the whole diverse friend group thing.
So long story short, you’re not bad at making new friends. If anything, you’re abnormally good at it. Be proud of your nomadic nature; it will make you an awesome addition to basically any workplace someday.
