Friendship

I am amused and amazed at how friendship changes at you get older. The way things seem to morph and grow. Of course this is a normal evolution of life and such, but I guess I just never took the time to put it under a microscope before. Friends come and go in our lives, we miss them and the pain subsides and you move on. Most of the time your a better person for having made that connection. Friends can grow apart, life has a nasty habit of causing this little issue. However I think that the friendships we make in life say a lot about the kind of person we are.

When we are little anyone who we play with in our neighborhood is a friend. Most of our classmates carry that label as well. The people we see and interact with every day we call our friends. We try to have more friends than the girl who sits next to us, more people at our party, more sleep overs. Most friendships children form are shallow and most do not stick. Not to say all do not, there is that rare friendship that lasts a lifetime.

As we grow up into our teen years we make some friendships that will last and some that are fleeting. Here you start to learn the true value a friendship. Trust and loyalty become factors you look for in a friend. Common interests are another friendship factor. You looking for your spot in the world, your click of friends grow and take a real shape.

When you become an adult, friends and acquaintances get their separate boxes. Friends are the people you can count on in an emergency. Friends are the people who are honest with you even if it hurts. They are the ones you go to when all your chips are down. Acquaintances are harder they sometimes wear the mask of friendship but in the end they are people you sorta know that have lives that you don't really fit in to.

I am 38 years old and I can count on my hand the number of people I could call in the middle of the night in an emergency. On the other hand I can double or even triple the number of people that I would go out of my way for. Don't get me wrong I have made some wonderful friends and I know some awesome people, some who have shown themselves to be what a true friend is, however writing this has made me a bit sad as I see the people who call themselves my friend when in fact they don't even understand the true definition.

So for my true friends who know who I am and love me just the same, thank you! Thank you for listening and caring and not judging me. Thank you for being there and standing by me. In this I can say I have been blessed with some awesome people in my life I am a lucky woman to have the friends I do.