You know feeling when you meet someone new that you get along with, or become close to someone for the first time? When you’re so excited to hang out with them and get to know them more and more? We’ve all experienced it, whether it was making a new friend or starting to date someone, all of us have been there before.

It’s really fun, especially for people like me who tend to keep to themselves and rarely interact with new people. Getting to know someone new is an amazing experience, but you have to be careful when you do this.

Often times when you’re getting close to someone you want to spend a lot of time with them so you might start doing things with them in order to do that, which is good, trying new things is good. However while you’re trying all these new things, going to places you normally wouldn’t go, and meeting brand new people, it’s important to not let all these new changes consume you.

Once you start incorporating hanging out with them into your daily life, you run out of space to do the things you used to do.

The people you used to hang out with, the places you used to go to, suddenly you have to sacrifice doing these things and your life, for that period of time, becomes hanging out with that one person.

It makes you forget what you used to enjoy on your own and it makes you start to lose some independence and a bit of who you are.

It’s important, in these new friendships or relationships, that you don’t let it all consume you. Hanging out with them is great, but make time for the things you used to love to do as well. These are things even I have to remind myself about sometimes, but it’s very important that you do this. Stay who you are and don’t forget where you came from as you experience new things. They’re a part of what makes you who you are, so hold on to them so you don’t forget.