* Dedicated to my wonderful friends around the Globe. This is the minimum I can say about all of you and how highly I think of our friendships.
I strongly believe that friendship is the basis and one of the fundamental pillars for the human survival. All of us, no matter of social clustering, authority or role in the society, have experienced different kinds of friendship. We take this friendship for granted because it is something that exists naturally in society and most of us never really have to actually go out into the world looking for a friend. But those of us who have had to live in a foreign country or in new surroundings have come upon realization how significant and essential those are in life.
As we grow up we realize the tangible values of friendship at different stages of life and social/psychological benefits gained across our lifespan. After all what is friendship to me? In its broadest sense I see Friendship to be a bond between human beings alleviating the isolation of the individual human psyche. Across the life cycle of mine I have interfaced a lot of changes due to new social interactions, geographical relocations and the change in the nature of human psychology in general. All of us complete almost the same series of life phases going through infancy, pre-school, early adolescence, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. And friendship, unquestionably, is vital at each and every day of our existence.
As I already mentioned for a lot of us friends come naturally as we socialize, relocate, travel whatsoever, but the more difficult and important aspect of the friendship is the ability to maintain those valuable connections. What does one need to maintain the true friendship? I can name three concepts: Love, Respect and Honesty. When there is a lackage of any of this, then the friendship will gradually disintegrate. My experience has proofed me that one aspect or the other alone is never enough to sustain and maintain the relationship with “friends”, you need the whole package of respect and honesty and LOVE. Where, in true friendship, love means so many things: being out there when your friend needs you, no matter of the consequences, listening to the problems, sharing the sorrow and the laughter, even that hug given by you to your friend is the most comforting feeling of all. Love ties in to respect, compassion and devotion.
Mark Twain once said, "Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy of life you must have somebody to divide it with." The point is we need our true friends in the happiness and sorrow, at times of excitement and depressions. The foundation of life is the true friendship: shared love, expressed respect, secrets kept, tears shed, laughs shared. Once we find that bond between us we can maintain our friendship for the lifetime. Friends make true friendships possible, and with that, it makes life possible.
I met a lot of people in my life, have been up and down, and through the best and the worse and that made me who I am today. Having a very hard life from the very childhood made me very mature and strong, who can overcome any obstacle on his way. Through my existence I have faced “friend” the liar, arrogant, careless, flimsy, selfish, bastard, cheater, egocentric, no morals, stupid, addict, childish, and the list can go on forever. But the bright light is that with all this disappointments and train wracks, I have sustained and kept my true friends. The power between is still a prevalent and pertinent quality that is mutually understood.
I am sure the cycle of people I have now around me spread around the world, we will be out there for each other through the thick and thin, best and worst, happiness and sorrow. THANK YOU my precious friends for being in my life. I am the luckiest person to know you, to have you and to love you!!!
