Bank holidays can be an opportunity to reassess relationships

A friend said recently she believes some people are only meant to be in your life for a while, writes Harriet Williamson

Bank holiday or no, we should spend our time with those who lift us up (Getty)

On bank holiday weekends, you’re meant to have Plans. The capital “P” is deliberate. For many of us, bank holidays are an opportunity to snatch some joyful recuperation time, to see friends and family and to (hopefully, in the case of the May and June bank holidays) enjoy pleasant weather.

Of course, bank holidays aren’t holidays for everyone – as those in the NHS and emergency services, social care, the service industry, journalism and many other sectors will attest. But if you do get the time off, it can feel like there’s an expectation to make the most of it and have Big Plans.

If I wasn’t working on Sunday and bank holiday Monday this year, I’m really not sure I’d have those juicy social engagements lined up and ready to go. My friendships and the people I choose to spend time with outside of work have changed considerably over the past six months, and I’m in a kind of limbo state, where I try to make really conscious choices about the people who “spark joy” – in the eternal words of Marie Kondo – and who I want to take with me into my thirties and beyond.