A thought

Sometimes I feel like trying to make new friends is like trying to buy berries at the grocery store.

You have to check every package for mold before you buy anything, and sometimes you think you picked an okay one, but the minute you get home you discover that there was mold in it that you didn't see.

And no matter how careful you are about trying to befriend people who aren't jerks (or worse), sometimes you discover later that they were jerks in a way that wasn't immediately obvious at first, and then you're stuck dealing with this metaphorical half-moldy package of blueberries.

I originally wrote this out with fandom friends in mind, but it unfortunately tracks pretty well with my in-person experiences too.