So my close friends were all made years ago at school/uni when it was relatively easy to make friends (coursemates, housemates etc, you just spend so much time together). Since then we're in contact but we all live in different parts of the country so only really meet up a couple of times a year.
Having recently become a mum I've made loads of mum 'acquaintances' via mum groups, baby classes etc. Am in a few WhatsApp groups and I do always get invited to group events eg walks, pub lunches with the babies etc and I've organised a couple myself. So I'm not unpopular. But I can't help but notice some mums seem very close, have been to each others houses etc and just seem a lot closer than I am to anyone. And I realised this has happened a lot in my life. The same thing has always happened in my working life at a few different jobs, like I'm always part of a group of colleagues that will go for a drink after work or whatever and we're all friendly but I'm never particularly close to anyone, whereas over time I've seen some colleagues become so close they've become each others bridesmaids or have gone travelling together (as examples). It also took me a long time to finally have a close group of uni friends even though I was very sociable.
On the outside it would look like I'm popular as I have no shortage of people to meet up with, but I feel like I always miss out on that deeper connection that makes me become a close friend to someone rather than someone to just pass the time with if that makes sense. It's like there's an invisible barrier but I'm not sure why this always happens to me. I find it hard to get past that initial small talk bit of a potential new friendship I suppose, as I don't know how to do it!
Any tips? Would be interested in hearing how you've gone from acquaintance to friend and what I need to do to cross that barrier! I'd much rather have 1-2 close new friends than 10 new 'surface level' friends but I always seem to end up with the latter.