Cliques, childhood friends, ride-or-dies, group chat members: let’s agree that being part of a group of friends is part of our culture, no matter what you call it. And, when groups are involved, no one likes to be excluded from all the gossip, connections, and inside jokes. In some cases, people are lucky enough to stick with their same group for years, demonstrating the strength of one’s friendship transcending the wear of time. But for others, like myself, never really had a friend group for various reasons, which isn’t bad at all! What it really means that you’re a very open and versatile person when it comes to making friends. You enjoy to have company for every environment and every situation and overall, you want everyone to feel included.

1. You’re Not Living The Life Depicted On TV

So you don’t have that ride-or-die friend group from famous TV shows like in "Zoey 101 "with Zoey’s high school clique, or a relationship like from "Community" that grew from study group to family, or even the ultimate #friendshipgoals from the "Friends" cast that struggled and conquered together. You can’t deny how much these television shows influence our perspective and expectations of life so you couldn’t help but feel envious of what these lovable characters had that you didn’t.

2. But It Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Have Friends

Despite lacking a clique, that doesn’t stop you from having friends! You may not be a member of the "Friends" gang livin' it up in NYC and causing all kinds of drama and shenanigans, but all you need is one or two of your best buds to create iconic trios like in "That’s So Raven," "Ned’s Declassified," and "Lizzie McGuire." The main characters didn’t have a huge group and mainly hanged with their same friends, which was enough for them to make the best of their school years.

3. You’ve Got Different Friends For Different Reasons

Sometimes it’s difficult to find one friend who relates to you on all levels. You have a different story for each friend you’ve met. Your vast array of friendships range from childhood friends to new acquaintances. You have friends for every occasion like school, work, and free time as well as online friends that live miles away from you but still got time to chat and keep up with each other. You even have friends ranging from high-school-age while to working adults that you lean on for advice. So, it never appears as a loss to not have a singular friend group when you have a diverse array of friends to compliment your diverse personality.

4. It's A Struggle To Gather Everyone Together

The idea of having an “abundance” of friends may sound like a good idea at first, but trying to hold them all down in one place is a challenge and one of the reasons why you don’t have a concrete friend group. With friends from near and far, to those busy with school or work it’s difficult to plan an event like a party or small gathering that suits their schedule. And, to be honest, sometimes friends drift away. But once you do have the friends that come through, you worry if they can all mingle with each other since the only thing that everyone has in common is a connection with you so the awkward atmosphere intensifies. As a result, you sacrifice organizing large get-togethers for short meet ups every few weeks to keep in touch with friends.

5. It's A Hassle To Keep Up With All Types Of Friends

With friends all over the place, it’s another hassle to keep up with friends when you can’t wrangle them altogether in one place. One solution is through different group chats, which is fun, but takes a toll on your phone’s battery life and can get annoying with all the notifications. Aside from online connections, there are always individual meetups in-person that are "way" more fun than just texting. However, as much as you want to hang with each person individually, sometimes it can be costly to get the best out of hanging out, so you really gotta be creative with fun activities to do that make lasting memories.

6. You Have Different Personalities for Each Person

You've met with these people at different times and places and they probably only know a certain side of yourself. For instance, your work friends may only know your work personality and not much about your personal life; or that friend you met online only knows about your interests and not a lot about your real life. You have different inside jokes and different types of humor for each friend that you need to keep up with as well. There are the few friends that you feel comfortable enough to be yourself, but for new acquaintances, you still have this single-sided facade with them that’s gonna take some time to shed yourself from.