Recommended Read 👉 Why'd you get Coffee with Pam? (How Networking is Changing in the digital age )

“Sounds like torture,” my friends say. “Why would you get coffee with Pam, what do you even have to talk about?”

Pam and I grew up together, attending the same middle and high school. But we were never good friends; acquaintances, at best. Yet we met for coffee in February, our third time doing so in the past two years. My friends can’t understand why we keep meeting.

Pam is fictional, at least in my life. But her name represents many people I do maintain a relationship with, that my inner circle cannot understand.

The pandemic has screwed up our social needs. That said, it is vital that we play a deliberate role in meeting new people or maintaining an acquaintance ( with the proper safeguards in place ).

 _Did you know that the longest study on happiness shows that the number one predictor for a good life is the quality of one’s relationships? This makes sense to me, but is not the message that’s taught to us. Neither is the message that maintaining quality friendships requires work and commitment._

🤔 I am curious to know how you are maintaining close friendships during these uncertain times. ⚠️ Disclaimer: I do not write this note. But I wish I had.

I have a friend from college and would catch up once a month. We both have similar interests and we end up chatting for hours when we do meet. Didn’t catch up for months during the initial months of the pandemic - and finally decided to catch up on zoom. Have caught up twice now (with video and a cup of coffee) and it is not bad at all. I wonder if this will permanently cause us not to meet that often in person (even if we can after a while). 100% on the relationships thing. There is a documentary called “Happy” which I would strongly recommend along with reading the book that Abhishek mentions.