True Friendship

During the past few days, apart from following the world's latest news and doing my part to spread socialist values in the corner I inhabit, I have also turned my attention to some lifestyle blogs. I found a number of blogs that were quite interesting and have added them to my blog list.

Whilst reading a post on one of these blogs, I came across the following passage:

"When I mentioned how I hadn’t heard from a certain friend in months, mom asked, “So, why didn’t you call her?”

“Why should I?” I shot back angrily. “It’s always me. I’m always the one chasing after people to hang out with me. Do you know [how] that makes me feel? Like some loser who has to try and convince people to hang out with me all of the time. If they can’t be bothered to pick up the fucking phone or shoot me an e-mail every now and again, then why should I bother wasting any more of my time? I’m so sick of this shit.”

During my university years, I managed to develop some friendships with a number of classmates. Over the four years that I spent at university, some of those friendships grew quite strongly. The shocking part of the story is that almost immediately after the graduation ceremony, most of those people just drifted away. I used to send emails, call them over the phone to meet....I eventually realised that I was usually the one chasing these "friends". One of them got married around a year after we left university; he did not bother to invite me to his wedding. By the way, I was the person who had introduced him to the girl he married!!!

Nowadays, even though I am very happily married, there are still times when I feel that I have to chase certain people in order to do something together. I find this issue quite disturbing. As a person, I do not smoke or use any drugs whatsoever. If I drink, I only do so on a social basis and I never go overboard. I have countless interests and enjoy laughing. Financially, I could be in a better position, but it is not so easy to be very rich when you are working in a country that promotes its low operating costs to attract foreign investors! Why, I ask myself, do many people seem to get invited to events almost every weekend whilst I - with all the qualities I have - frequently end up being the one to chase another person to organise something?

In the past, I have often wondered whether I expect too much from those individuals that I consider to be true friends. I am aware that we live in a fast-paced world with several things to do in a relatively short span of time. Yet, with all the technological advances witnessed during the last few years, I find it extremely hard to believe that a person cannot find a couple of minutes to send an email, a text message, or to make a quick phone call. Is it really that complicated to show some care towards another human being, to say something like "Hi there, just wanted to make sure that you are fine! Can't wait to meet up sometime soon...!?" It took me a few seconds to write those words myself! LOL

Throughout the past ten years or so, many people have crossed my life path. The vast majority of them ended up drifting away for one reason or another. A few of them were initially very friendly, but ended up hurting me a great deal. Of course, you do learn from every experience, but the painful memories also add up. Every time a so-called "friend" drifted away, I felt abandoned, used, lonely, sad...

In spite of the above, I still believe in the existence of true friendship. To me, a real friend is one that will always stand by you. That person might not agree with you about everything (anyway, is that ever possible?), but he/she will always care about your well-being. It is a pity, though, that it seems to be so hard to find such people. Long live true friendship!!!