Big Brother South Africa

One thing I've learned this week is how easy it is to build a relationship in a few shorts with complete strangers when you spend all of your time together. Vero made a comment this morning about how she always used to think it was silly that they cried when they had to leave each other on the show Big Brother because they'd only known each other for a few weeks, but here she is "on the verge of tears if someone even says her name" she's that sad at having to leave everyone (or go back to work, we're not sure which). When we go to college, this is exactly the type of experience that we have, a bunch of strangers thrown into a similar situation, facing simliar challenges, spending every waking hour together, forming bonds that last a lifetime. The sad truth is that we don't have many opportunities for these types of extreme conditions in our adult life.

Sure, we work with people, and we spend a lot of time with them, but at the end of the day, work time is work time and it doesn't count for much. In fact, I'm going to wager than an hour of time spent outside of work with someone is worth atleast, atleast one or two full weeks of work. The strongest relationships I've built at work have been through situations and experiences that happened outside of work, whether it was traveling, dinner, instant messaging, or even talking about a subject not at all work related...that's where the bonding happens.

It's very difficult to remedy this situation. In the real world, we only get a couple of weeks time each year to ourselves, and even then, you don't want to put them all together for fear you'll kill yourself the rest of the year, so you do a week here and a week there...and if you're fortunate enough to be able to do them with friends and continue to build relationships, it still is only a week. I know here, after a week I was just figuring out who I got along with better than others and getting a feel for all of the people here. It really took a few weeks for that "crying bond" to form, and now that it finally has, everyone is going their separate ways.

While I'm sure that most of us will see each other again, I can't imagine that it would be the same. We'll all have spent time in between without each other and maybe have to catch up instead of just living in the moment as a collective consciousness. Then again, maybe it'll be better, there will be significant others involved, new travels and experiences to have and new things to share. After all, if it was the same exact experience, would you really want to repeat it?

I only need to learn to walk on air once...after that it's like riding a bike.