Friendship

friend*ship

What is friendship? Friendship is a word used to describe many different kinds of personal relationships. Many people are just acquaintances, yet they call it a friendship. True friends know the difference. Other people may be friends in school, and then after school they go their own ways. True friends are not just "sometime friends", they are friends to each other at all times. The American Heritage College Dictionary defines friendship as "the quality or condition of being friends". To me there is just so much more than just that. Friendship is not simply a "relationship", or knowing someone, conversing with that person, or dealing with that person in business, school, or in casual acquaintance. True friendship is not just a "relationship", but self-sacrificing love. A friend is also one who cares, supports, sympathizes with, encourages and is a person in whom you can trust no matter what.

I have this friend that wanted to take mushrooms for the first time. Though I had never done them and never would, I told him he needed to take it easy for his first time; I heard that they can really hit you hard, but he didn't listen to me; he had no trust or confidence in what I had to say, he figured that since I had not taken them I did not know what I was talking about. Next thing I knew he had taken them all; there were about twelve little mushrooms in that bag and he ate every last one of them. By the night's end he thought he was going to die, he had some severe hallucinations that really messed with his head. Even though he didn't listen to me I stayed with him through the night, I could not leave my friend to suffer that alone. After it was all said and done he came to me and thanked me for being there for him and told me that he has never had a friend stick by his side like that. He also apologized to me for not trusting what I had to say about the drugs and for not being a better friend himself. From that day forward our friendship has grown stronger; we both confide and have complete trust in one another. I feel absolutely comfortable confiding my troubles in him and taking advice from him. I trust that he will always be brutally honest no matter what the subject matter and he trusts that I will do the same. I am proud to say that he feels the same way and since our little incident he has heeded my advice and stayed away from all drugs.

True friendships are hard to win but are easily lost if you don't play your cards right.

Friendships that are won can easily be lost because of misunderstandings and disputes. Being angry with a friend is like burning down your own house to kill a rat. Rebuild damaged relationships with forgiveness and realistic expectations. After all, people are imperfect; and that includes us. If we are to be accepted with all our faults, don't we owe others the same courtesy? If we are easily hurt by the insensitive remarks of our friends, imagine how they feel when we do the same. The truth is we make more enemies by what we say than friends by what we do. We can win a few friends with our mouths, more with our ears, and the most with our hearts. As long as we communicate in a thoughtful and caring way, we will maintain our friendships.

People are so different from each other that it is a wonder that relationships can form at all. This is what makes friendship such a beautiful thing but it is also the