by Rachel Faye

Created on: April 30, 2008

What is friendship?

A friend is someone whom you can depend on. He is someone whom you can rant and rave at and still be there for you. He is someone who will still listen to what you say even though you have repeated it like ten times over. He is someone who understands what you are saying even when you are incoherent. A friend is someone who loves you despite all your faults. He is someone who will scold or nag at you when he sees that you are going down the wrong path. He is someone you can tell your deep, dark secrets and know that it will not be repeated. A friend is someone who will tell you the truth even if it hurts you, but it is for your own good. He is someone whom you share your worries with and makes your burden lighter. He is someone you are looking forward to spending time together with. He is someone whom you are comfortable being silent with. A friend.

Human beings are social animals. From the beginning of time, we were not created to be alone, we hunted, lived, slept, ate and sometimes even died together.

There are different levels of friendship. At the very first level of friendship, we have friends whom we meet every day, but we only smile or nod at each other to acknowledge the presence of the other party.

Then the next level of friendship, we have friends whom we share the occasional conversation or exchange of greeting followed by the simple query of general well-being of the other party or just a general comment on the weather.

Progress is made when we start to speak to each other and we find out more of the other person. When we discover that we share a common interest, we tend to seek out the other party and spend more time with each other.

Eventually, we find that the more time we enjoy talking to each other, the more we will be inclined to spending time with each other. At this point, there may be some disagreement to a certain point of view. If we can get over the fact that we can agree to disagree, the friendship will most likely continue to develop and grow. If the disagreement is not taken too seriously, the level of friendship will remain at this level as good friends.

For a friendship to develop to the highest level requires both parties to share with each other their thoughts and joys and deep, dark secrets. At all other levels, it is always the easiest to share your joy with other people. Deep, dark secrets are reserved for only the privileged few or one best friend. If we are lucky, we can find one best friend, but we have been very open and honest. We can get a group of people who we can call our best friends provided that the group dynamics is suitable and the personalities just click together.

Have a best friend or support group is vital for your well-being. It keeps us on a balance as we go through the trials of living our lives as best as we can.

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