Though youth gave love and rose, age still leaves us friends and wine – Thomas Moore.
We all need friends, or rather, most of us do, and although for some people it is easy to make friends, for others it is an uphill task. Friendship takes some effort, but it doesn’t have to be. You can make friends just by listening to people talk to you and responding with a smile. A friend is someone you can trust at all times, someone who loves you and supports you no matter what. Most of the time a friend is supposed to understand and not judge. Friends cry with you and laugh with you. Friendship is not based on what one can get out of it, it is not so superficial and selfish. True friendship runs deeper and is a relationship that has been nurtured for a long time.
There are different types of friends, some friendships are short-lived and friends are only there for that season, but true friendship lasts. Most of us make friends when we are young and keep them throughout our lives. These are friends who have known you inside out since you were in kindergarten or those you bonded with when you were in high school and traded advice on how to rebel with your parents. But some friends are also made when we are adults, we grow up with children and even if they don’t know us for a long time, they are still special and important and we keep them.
Friendships actually last longer than most romantic relationships because they are built on honesty and no pretense is required to impress a friend. You don’t need makeup or cologne to go out with a friend, but you have to work on friendship as a love relationship. The relationship has to be nurtured and watered like a plant. Don’t get comfortable and take your friends for granted. We live in a really busy world right now and hardly have time for ourselves let alone friends and other commitments, but you can sacrifice to get together with your friends once in a while. If it’s not possible regularly, text, email (no forward), call them even for a minute or two, just to let them know you’re thinking of them and value them. Do you have a special friend that you can call in the middle of the night when you’re in jail or something that important? Do you know those who don’t ask questions, don’t judge but listen and understand? If you expect your friends to be there for you, be the right friend too and in return stay there for them, that’s what friendship is all about.
Be sincere and encourage your friends when they succeed, don’t envy them or that wouldn’t constitute true friendship. Forgive them when they hurt you; they are just human, they will make mistakes along the way and let you down sometimes. When your friend hurts you, don’t call a duet in the field to work things out, those things are only for the movies. When you offend, you expect to be forgiven, and in the same spirit you should forgive your friends. Be loyal, be honest, be dedicated. You can build bonds that will last forever and enter into a friendship that lasts forever and whose depth is beyond measure.