📩 Letter #36- On Friendship - Letters From Home & Away⁠↗

But free to roam, with flights to any imaginable destination just a click away (credit card points!), an unlimited number of new people to meet, and nothing to tie me down but a backpack, I felt more unmoored than ever. Where should I go? What should I see? The answer, it seemed: Everything.

Freedom is cheap. What we don’t acknowledge is the high cost of a life without commitment. Without commitment—to a place, to a family, to a group of friends—I wouldn’t have had anyone or anything to go back to. I’d have gotten my shot in the arm with no plans to make.

Meaningful relationships are formed through commitment, not through freedom. You don’t need to search the entire country’s bars and restaurants for your perfect pals. Just pick some people, science says. Commit to them. They might not be NBA players or millionaires. But they’ll be yours. And that will be the best thing of all.