War of the Worlds?

I would like to begin with the fact that I have officially seen every episode of Criminal Minds that has been aired to date. Yes, please pause for a brief moment of applause. 

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Thank you. Moving on. Now, it is Spring Break. Thank the LORD. I am at the home front for around a week. Not too shabby if I do say so myself....which, I obviously do. This break will be spent relaxing and scheming up plans to raise money for Rwanda. I accept cash, credit, debit, and checks paid to the order of Rachel "Broke as Hell" DeFoe. Please and thank you. 

Recent Revelations: Trying to blend different worlds is always much more difficult than would be preferred. Take high school and college friends for example. Putting those two parts of your life is much trickier than one probably thinks. A common fallacy?

"I'm friends with both groups, so why wouldn't they all get along with each other with limited awkwardness?"

Sadly, this is much easier said than done. Not only is there most likely going to be above normal levels of awkwardness, but nights out that start with the best of intentions more often than not end in utter failure.

Why is this? Well, it is something I have given a lot of thought to and have slowly but surely come to a few conclusions. First, even the nicest and friendliest of friends are capable of certain amounts of possessiveness when it comes to their own friendships. This causes obvious problems. When one's college friends and high school friends come together it becomes almost a competition. Each group feels like they must illustrate their dominance and importance in the one's life that overshadows the other group's. The high school and childhood friends believe to be the most important because they have been there longer. The college friends, on the other hand, can claim to be the friends chosen in adulthood and not out of adolescent convenience and proximity. Both are valid arguments, but neither one is the clear victor. They just create irreconcilable rifts between the two groups, and cause a lot of frustration and hurt feelings to all those involved. 

Second, the friend who is trying to combine their two friend worlds always has high expectations that will most likely be hard if not impossible to meet. This puts a lot of pressure on the planned meeting, and sets it up for failure. Naively thinking that a night out with both friend groups is going to be full of rainbows and sunshine leads to heartbreak and fights. I am guilty of having such expectations. I have built up a friend from one friend group to the other friend group and then that friend let me down. Significantly, and thus a huge rift was created. Had I not had such high expectations, the meeting probably would have gone fine. But alas, I set it up for failure. Yay for teaching others through my mistakes!

Thirdly, a peaceful and fun melding of the two worlds is possible. Not the most likely outcome, but still very possible! So, don't avoid it just because you are afraid of failed attempts. While I have had less than amazing experiences with it, I have had a few success stories as well and those make it worth all the trouble :) 

Yeah.... this is what I think about at 2am. You're welcome world. You have been learned. 

Nighty night!