Heard yet another person in their 50s say regretfully "I never had a tight group of friends, you know like in The Big Chill" (movie from the 80s that involves a friend reunion, but think of Friends or virtually any sitcom).

But think for a second - writing a story/making a movie or TV show, etc - it's so much easier to center things inside a known, tight, recurring cast.

That this is a writing/casting aid widely used in media does not make it a normal or ideal way that real people have real friends.

I can't tell you how many people have lamented to me their lack of having one big close interconnected friend group. But I literally know no one whose relationships work like that. Even the most social people I know have tons of nonoverlapping connections and maybe some loose ties to a class or old team, but rarely are those groups particularly close or lasting.

I just want to grab all of us and say: please stop thinking you're a social weirdo for not living in a sit com.