Dubai Life as I Lived It - Friends

I know I am not that friendly but I know how to keep people in my life. I guess I have been taught to know who I want to be friends with and who to get rid of.

People come and go of course but somehow, these people leave a mark in your life. Both marks could either be good or bad – but still a mark.

I have had good friends – people that I treated as family since living abroad is not that easy. People that somehow knew me and saw through me at least in a manner that they know me.  But have you noticed I used the “have had” in the beginning? Yes, we do no connect anymore. They knew me and saw right through me like

I met families and couples that lived here for a good time. Families that have dreams and are slowly creating a little world in a land that’s thousands of miles away from home.  People that I have become familiar with and somehow treated me like family and not a stranger. Working folk that I have considered to be friends.

Friends are important to be a support system and shock absorber while living abroad. Home-sickness, work-stress and all kinds of pressures can get into you and these people.

How can one get friends? I don’t know. Actually, I know a good number of people that can somehow be considered a good circle or connections. But of course, not all of them can be considered as a friend. What does it take to be considered a friend while living and working abroad?

Do you have to have the same salary bracket? Does it follow to have the same interests? Is daily quality time an important aspect to be considered a “Best Friend”? Or just a simple connection is all it takes to be friends while hustling this amazing city?

They say that you would know who the real friend is when that person is there for you in your darkest, lowest moment in life. But does it have to reach to that point to know that this person is a friend?

Since coming to Dubai, I have had a good number of friendships that faded. Connections I have had with people that somehow grew far apart. Still, the respect is there but of course – communicating through social media. Friendship while being an expat is hard but it makes the experience worth while.