I don’t have a large friend group. In fact, since the age of 15, I haven’t had a large friend group. Sometimes, this has bothered me, and I have moments or even days when I wish I had more friends with more varied interests, or a reliable local group of girlfriends who I could just hang out with from time to time who I could trust. Last year, I went to a number of Meetup groups to try to meet new friends, but there wasn’t much of any “click” that happened. The one girl I met who seemed fun ended up being really flaky, and that seems to be the common theme among people in New York. Everyone has a lot of options and doesn’t always want to choose you. In fact, they may never choose you.

When I was out in my group of six tonight, though, with Chris, I felt really happy. In these moments, when we are all sitting around a table, drinking good whiskey instead of taking stupid shots, and talking about the most random things, and friends from different areas of my life are all laughing about the same thing, I think, well, I have a lot to be happy about. My friends all fit my life in different ways, as they should, and they love me and want to spend time with me on my birthday, even when I don’t always want to celebrate it. It doesn’t matter that they may be five versus fifty. I have what I need right here.