Proven: why you find fewer and fewer people nice as you get older

In the past, when the bartender still knew me by my first name and the weekend always started on Wednesday, I had 153 good girlfriends.

No joke. Every evening I ate with acquaintances there, buddies here, I hung out with hockey friends, fun girls from my studies, from work, girls who knew my besties from school. And so on. We went out with full enthusiasm, were present at every hip party in every trendy place, and we toasted on Monday nights just as enthusiastically as on Saturday night. There was always at least one of the 153 who had the time and desire to do something fun. I couldn't count all those fun girls I chatted with endlessly on two hands., coffees and hung out at the bar. And now? There are about 8 good girlfriends left. And that is wonderful.

Because, as research shows: the older you get, the fewer people you like. This is mainly because you are busier when you are a bit closer to 30 than to 20. Namely... With work. Yes. When we still drank vodka-apple juice on Tuesdays and weren't even hungover on Wednesdays, we had time for that too. Now the alarm goes off at 7 am, duty calls you five, six days a week, and there are bills on your doormat instead of that puddle of vomit you don't remember anything about the next morning. I don't know what is worse... But the fact remains: times change. And friendships fade away. And that's really not a big deal. Because you simply don't have time for it anymore – and so you don't even notice that the fading has already begun. It happens naturally, because everyone has gotten different priorities. As long as you keep seeing your few real girlfriends, you are just as happy as with a bunch of girlfriends.

It also gives a certain kind of peace. You now know for sure who your buddies for life are, because you see and talk to them (almost) just as often as before. And yes, you still sometimes drink one wine too many. And yes, even from 4 small wines you get a hangover. But for those real girlfriends, you gladly endure the 3.5 days you need to recover.

Ah, wonderful, reminiscing about the past, about that time when we scored ten shots for ten euros and were very happy with that. That after Kingsen, clubbing and partying we always had breakfast together with croquettes. That we only went to bed early when we were at our parents' on a Sunday night, to reluctantly take vitamins there. I miss it. And yet not at all.

FACTS

• 15% of the Dutch say they have no real friends.
• On average, someone has 3.5 real friends.
• The average number of Facebook friends that an adult user has is 338.