My week had begun with very little energy and few expectations, and Seattle's cold weather spell had been doing work on me. I was standing at the stop for the route 7 bus, draped in a typical Monday's cynicism when I got an invitation to GOODFest (presented by Pixel, a phone by Google). A couple of text exchanges had turned what'd otherwise been an uneventful start to the week into a spontaneous night in the city.
After braving the cold, my friend and I were embraced by the intimate, mellow vibe Neumos is known for. There was a lively buzz around the bar area, with a reflection of "GOOD" cascading over the crowd. The energy was dope, and the room was littered by a medley of fashionable, beer-toting folks. My friend and I roamed a bit before finding a perching spot near the stage. Hollis, the host for the concert, got us going with vibrant energy before bringing Alicia Sanchez on for a few laughs. Sanchez held no punches during her wittingly self-aware tales of her childhood, from her one-ma'am-band whale watching club to her awkwardly creative retorts to bullies. I was into it, and the waves of chuckles around the venue suggested I wasn't the only one.
I was really excited to see the Seattle Rock Orchestra though. Any gang of badasses toting classical instruments is a juxtaposition worth listening to. Hollis joined the band onstage, along with a couple of handsome guys, to set a groovy bounce. I bobbed my head while playing around with the Pixel I was shooting on. Music venues are usually pretty challenging for mobile photography due to low light and the stark contrast between dark crowd scenes and neon stage lights. Unlike the iPhone camera, the Pixel gives you lots of controls and options to capture great shots without using external apps. There’s no lag time when launching the camera, which was the case with other camera apps I’ve used. The Pixel allows you to control exposure and focus really quickly, which is essential when shooting live performances.
We were all pretty excited for D.R.A.M. to hit the stage. You could feel the energy shift when he stepped out. The mood was high and vibe was thick. D.R.A.M. has an electric type of presence on stage, and the quick focus capability was clutch for capturing the liveliness of his performance. The Pixel performs like a pocket-sized HD video camera, too. The quality, especially when zooming is unparalleled. I was able to get some dope video of him engaging the crowd, as he flashed that smile that had the entire crowd swooning over bass-heavy tracks. I kept the camera locked in on the melodic rapper as he bobbed, weaved, and two-stepped around the stage. The carefree black boy joy was beautiful to experience. It was like he'd invited us all to a light-hearted house party. We danced, sipped, and vibed as if we'd known him personally. It's rare to find that kind of joy amongst strangers, especially in Seattle where the winter rains tends to keep us locked away in our cozy little cliques. It was a refreshingly unexpected turn for what'd begun as another mundane Monday. And I’ll be able to relive those moments in HD thanks to a solid performance by the Pixel.
Gif of Bryan CRanston being angry via 
Hungry and ready.Photo credit 
The mac and cheese staple presentation.Photo credit 
Pizza ready from the oven.Photo credit 
Friends hover around the barbeque.Photo credit 
Seafood platter on the beach.Photo credit 
Scarecrow watches over a vegetable garden.Photo credit 
Happiness next exit.Photo credit: 
Butterflies in a flower patch.Photo credit: 
Happy running doggie.Photo credit: 
Positive confirmation.Photo credit:
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.