"Friendship". What does that term even really mean? A connection and the bond between many individuals. The bond between myself and one other person. Something that unites me with someone else because we are agreeable (95% of the time) in each others presence. Knowing someone for X amount of years... or is it because they know my deepest secrets and fears. What is a "friend", really?
After 24 years, I still can't seem to pinpoint the exact meaning of that word. But I always understood that friendship grew out of all of the above and that with the term came unconditional love and understanding that sometimes we may not always be physically there for one another.
So it seemed.
Friendship has always meant a lot to me, but I guess I should start practicing what I preach. If not, I should at least start prioritizing so that friends (and family) always stay within the top 2 of my "list". Not trying to write out a sad-sob-blog story, but in the last few years I've made and lost friends. Long story short, a friend (whom I had known for almost 14 years) and I had hit a rough patch due to miscommunication. Instead of straightening things out face-to-face, it was a lot of "she said he said she said...", which (as we all know) is the key ingredient for a disaster. Resulting in the fact that our friendship was not salvageable and we went our separate ways (in process, losing those 14 years of a strong connection). Two years have since passed and I am extremely thrilled to say that we have reached neutral grounds and are now friends again. There is a long way to go in regaining that trust, but we are both happy that we are going down the right path (to be honest, I missed this girl A LOT).
After this whole situation, we figured that our circle of friends would have learnt a thing or two about the value of the relationships we hold with one another... alas I'm not sure that's the case since it feels like I'm going through this exact same situation with another close friend, whom I've known for (now) 16 years. This now brings up the previous question, "what is friendship?".
I guess the definition of "friendship" really depends on one's... well, one's main view of how it should be defined. For example, I describe "friendship" to be something that will never be lost between two individuals that truly care about one another. No matter what each individual goes through, the highs, the lows, regardless of all that comes between these two individuals, they will be able to reconnect as if time has not passed since they last saw one another. One of my closer high school friends and I have schedules that are completely opposite from one another, so I rarely have the chance to see her. But when we do, it's as if we saw each other just yesterday and easily pick up on where we last left off.
I mean, is that not what it is?
Life brings new adventures which cause the distance in friendships... but it certainly shouldn't be the reason in ending one.
Thoughts? Or am I just being foolish (as usual)?
Cheers,
C.
x
