You really don't have to be friends with everyone and you shouldn't

There's a lot of talk about how difficult it is to make friends as an adult.

Yes, it's difficult. But at the same time, if you do start to get to know someone else past the acquaintance phase and have deeper conversations, you may realize not everyone you try to become friends with, should or could be your friend.

Let's take one person I tried to be friends with over the past year:

We started off divulging each of our current struggles. She listened to me, I listened to her. We both felt a connection. Gift giving ensued. I noticed that whenever she gave me something, I'd thank her later and tell her how much I liked it. I also noticed that whenever I gave her something, she never said thank you and never told me her opinion.

As we continued talking, I liked hearing what she had to say about life. She'd also send me memes/funny videos, in which I'd always respond to. Weirdly enough, if I sent her a meme/funny video, she often changed the subject, or didn't respond at all.

The friendship became one-sided. Whenever I tried to show her something, she'd either ignore me or started talking about herself. Whenever she showed me something, I listened and had an actual conversation.

The more I knew her, the more I realized she was self-absorbed, judgmental and hateful. I gave her emotional support, but then over time it became increasingly difficult to talk to her about anything. I started getting irritated at her responses when I tried to share something on my end.

I eventually discovered that a lot of her "friends" in the community stopped talking to her as well.

Took a few difficult interactions with her to realize that we weren't meant to be friends forever. Some people are just temporary friends that you share similar struggles with for a certain period of time. Once those struggles subside, you're left with knowing who the person really is.

Lesson: You may be able to start a friendship as an adult, but it's not necessarily a lasting one or a compatible one.