A Friend to All Is a Friend to None

According to Ayushi Thakkar, floater friends frequently feel included but unrooted in friendship groups. They participate in social activities and are part of the network, but they are rarely central or deeply connected, leading to a sense of emotional peripherality.

Being a floater friend can be closely associated with a mirrorball. Its reflection, which represents a floater friend's personality, is determined by its environment—and, like floater friends, they adapt fluidly to different social contexts and friend groups, frequently managing multiple friendships that do not overlap, necessitating constant emotional adjustment and social navigation.

But how does it exactly feel to be a walking mirror ball?

It seems like you are always left out of group plans or activities, regardless of what you do. Even if you're in a completely new environment where no one knows anyone, you'll still feel like an outsider. It's truly frustrating.

Whenever you attempt to make friends with other people, it feels like you're the only one who wants it to happen, and the other person isn't interested.

It’s ironic because most of the time, you are not alone, yet you feel lonely straight to the core.

When the tide turns and you find yourself in need of support, no one shows up, or if they do, it feels so forced that you hesitate, fearing you’re more a burden than a friend. Without realizing it, the role of being everyone’s “one call away” becomes a toxic pattern, draining the joy from those relationships.

Many know you as someone who applauds everything you find amusing. You cheer whenever your friends accomplish something, are happy, are finally moving on, overcome a challenge that you assisted them with, and so on. Yet, when it’s your turn to climb a podium, no one claps—and when you look at the audience, the silence becomes louder than your achievement, making you painfully aware of how invisible you feel.

And then you find yourself being submerged in that silence, questioning if the friendships that you invested in for a very long time really mattered for the people you referred to as your friends.

Did you truly make a special connection, or did you simply assume it out of 'nothing' and mistook it for 'something'?

It bears a weight that crushes your confidence and makes you wonder if you even mattered to these friends or if you were only part of the scenery, someone to take up space but not to have any real connection with.

Sometimes our need to be liked by all blinds us to the need for depth in friendship. When we overextend ourselves, attempting to belong to every group or circle, we deprive ourselves with the closeness that true friendship needs to have.

It is better to have a few sure friends than multiple friends who only recognize your face but not your soul. In order to build genuine and strong friendship, you need to accept vulnerability, shared time, and mutual understanding—things that you can’t fully do if you’re juggling a lot of them.

Friendships should make you feel loved, supported, and seen; if it involves ignoring your boundaries and sacrificing your emotional needs, leaving you feeling drained and unsupported, it is not the right friendship for you. Solid connections are spaces for you to evolve as a person and definitely not to drain you.

Being aware of what you deserve is the first step in creating meaningful connections with others. You have to prioritize giving your energy to the people that appreciate you as much as you appreciate them rather than to those ones that drain your soul out of loneliness.

Although humans have a desire for many people to like them, you must remember that it is okay not to be liked by everyone—all you need are a few people who care about you and make you feel truly understood as a person, worthy of being cherished, celebrated, and cheered for. #InformedPhilippines