What I call friendship

Friendship is such a weird thing. We all know of it. We all grew with it . We all love it. And we all absolutely cannot survive without it! As social creatures, it is such a vital part of life, to have friends. Even for an introvert like me, not having friends sounds incredibly dull. We all appreciate the importance of friendship in our lives. And still, it is such a intangible concept. Friendship. No matter how many friends you have, you cannot be an expert at friendship.

I think its because its a very flexible. You have your acquaintances, your basic friends, your best friends and if you’re really, really lucky, you get to have the best of the best friends. You know, the ones that you are fortunate enough to have at your side for your life.

But for most of us, friends are a very fluid part of life. As we grow and travel, we connect with people at different times and different places. They touch our lives for some time and their journeys might never cross ours again. Or they may cross after many years and then stay intertwined. Some of our best friends suddenly drift far away, too far to hope to reach them again. And suddenly, randomly, a stranger becomes practically our closest confidant overnight.

Friendship itself is such a loose term. For me, I think of everyone who is nice to me as a friend. (To be honest, it might be due to the fact that I have the social skills of a five-year old and so, my mind sees every nice person as a friend.) But of course, I have to admit that I have been very lucky to have my best friends, the kind that always picks up where we left off, even if we haven’t been in constant touch every day. The kind that knows exactly what to say when I’m happy or sad or mad. The kind I’m very grateful for. Because I know the emptiness that we have to face, when we have no one to share a laugh or a tear with.

But I’m also grateful to all the different friendships I’ve had. Because they all made me happy at some point in life. Every chat with a new friend in a plane, every late night rendezvous with my housemates, every occasional text with my school friends, every call with my closest friends, every like on my posts….they all impacted my life and led me to here today. So, I love all those moments, when the joy of friendship and companionship brushed against my life, to give it meaning. Thank you, my friends, for being there when I needed you!