• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Catherine Gacad

  • About
  • Categories
    • Archives
    • Blogging
    • Burning Man
    • City Guides
    • Education & Politics
    • Favorite Books
    • Finances & Retirement
    • Parenthood
    • Relationships
    • Religion
    • San Francisco Bay Area
    • Travel
  • Hire Me
  • Subscribe
    • Feedburner
    • Bloglovin
    • Feedly
  • Search

All Posts

How Many Friends Can a Person Have?

Daily Post, a few weeks ago, posed how many friends a person can have—an interesting debate that I tucked into my file of blog topics.

Last night, I had drinks with one of my newer friends—someone I’ve known since June 2008. Yes, I consider that a new friend! We had not met up in quite some time. So much time had elapsed that I’d written him off, without any ill intent whatsoever. We’re both extremely busy, probably consumed by our relationships, and associate with opposite crowds. Marina vs Tendernob. Upper crust vs lower crust. Louis Vuitton vs Etsy. He’s great, but we don’t have the time to foster our friendship any longer, especially when we’ve got other friends to attend to.

He initiated a get together which is very uncharacteristic among my friends. Notice how I am always the one planning events and telling people to meet up! I wasn’t convinced by his offer as he’s cancelled on me plenty of times. I’ve done the same, so it’s been mutual. Mutually-hectic.

Yesterday at happy hour was the first time I’d seen him in over a year. His fiancé is a doll and I had a really enjoyable time—just the three of us talking.

The bottom line is that this guy is a true friend—regardless of how much time goes by.

As for Daily Post, it’s really not a question of how many friends can a person have, but how many friendships can you maintain? It is very hard. I have an often-referred-to spreadsheet of approximately 50 close friends that I make sure to maintain a good dialogue with.

But what about the thousand friends on Facebook? Are they acquaintances? Do you go up to acquaintances and give them big hugs? Aren’t friends those we can spend quality time catching up with even when you haven’t seen them in years? Well then they are my friends, all thousand of them.

Related

Tweet
Pin
Share
0 Shares

08.03.11

Tweet
Pin
Share
0 Shares

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to my site, derived from an advice column I wrote while getting my MBA. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I give helpful, opinionated advice based on my own experience and from the expertise of my extensive network. For more, click here.

Categories

  • Archives
  • Blogging
  • Burning Man
  • City Guides
  • Education & Politics
  • Favorite Books
  • Finances & Retirement
  • Parenthood
  • Relationships
  • Religion
  • San Francisco Bay Area
  • Travel

Popular Posts

  • An Exploration of World Religions: Zoroastrianism
  • A Flowchart for Choosing Your Religion
  • Why Do Guys Date Girls Who Barely Speak English?
  • Touring Sunnylands, "Camp David of the West," near Palm Springs
  • UC Berkeley English Department
  • How to Avoid Fecal Coliform Bacteria on Your Next Flight
  • What to Know About the Lair of the Golden Bear
  • Daily Interviews
  • Pre-Thanksgiving Not So Good News
  • Oysters at Cafe des Amis

Back to top

© 2025 Catherine Gacad.