Scarleteen

Despite the emphasis that is placed on them, romantic relationships are not the only relationships that need to be maintained. Sometimes we may find that we have neglected a friendship, or maybe we just haven't had the time to see a friend very often because of school or work. Maybe you make a special "date" to catch up with your friend and put the effort into maintaining that connection. I finished my final year of my undergraduate degree this spring, so I know ALL about neglecting friendships because of a schoolwork overload! Throughout the school year I would stay connected with my closest friends by having friend-dates every month or so, and now that it's summer time we're able to have friend-dates a little more frequently, but as my friends are working full time, we can't just hang out frequently like we used to.

With my long-distance best friend (she went off to university on the other side of the country!) we would meet on skype one day a week to watch Supernatural online together and make silly commentary back and forth with each other. This was also a really helpful way to unwind from the stress of school work.

With another best friend, last year we would attend a life-drawing class every few weeks together. This year we would meet up for a hot chocolate during the winter, an iced tea during the summer, and go for a walk around the neighbourhood chatting. We also schedule baking sessions together, usually for an occasion -- if one of us is having a birthday, christmas, or halloween party, we'll meet up that morning to bake treats for the party together and have our own one-on-one time. This monday we're going to be baking rainbow cupcakes before she heads off to a different city to do her Masters!

And with my other closest friend, we get together to have a Criminal Minds marathon and eat (vegan) pizza or nachos! We're also planning on going to the spa together soon.

So, have you had any "friend-dates" recently to maintain connection with your friends? What sorts of "friend dates" have you gone on?

I feel like I really need 1 on 1 time with close friends... group friendships are fun but I feel the absolute best when we go for dinner or watch movies together. This is a great thread!

I think going for a walk or a cycle is always my favourite. I went to my friend's home town last month and we spent the day just cycling round all the places she knows and it was just lovely to share the day with her this way. I definitely feel a lot closer to her for it.

I've been setting up a lot of friend-dates lately with one friend in particular; we've both had some rough stuff going on and it's been good to just hang out and get coffee or lunch once every week or two to talk openly about what's going on and be supportive of each other. I've been friends with him for years, but it wasn't until a few months ago that we hung out one-on-one instead of with our respective partners (my partner and his now-ex are co-workers). It's been great for our relationship to have that time with just us.

I have some other friends in the area I need to plan this sort of catch-up date with too, but so many of my friends have such busy schedules that it can be hard to coordinate with them. I'll keep trying, though.

I really love this thread, too!

A lot of my friend-dates are centered around getting food, which is partly out of necessity since I buy most of my own meals and they're all based in the city. Less frequently, they'll be centered around making food, which I find is often wonderful and healing. The majority of my friend-hangs also center around drinking alcohol, which I have mixed feeling about. I don't think everything in adulthood should involve alcohol, and I want to be intentional about carving spaces where this isn't the case.

Something I really want to do is either have pen-pals with far away friends, so we can share tidbits about our lives (and stickers), and start exercising with friends so we can be body-positive cheerleaders for one another!