To Friendship and Beyond!

After last week’s heavy topic, I am back with more energy and enthusiasm. Thank you to all those who reached out to find out if I was doing okay, thank you for your positive vibes, suggestions, and gyan on what I could do to keep these episodes from happening. I appreciate it all, very very much. The positive vibes definitely helped and in the hopes of keeping it going, let me start by wishing all of you a Happy Friendship Day. Even though I keep saying that I don’t really believe in all these special days, I must admit that because most of them (Mother’s Day, Father’s day, and now Friendship Day) fall on Sundays, they have become easy pickings for my weekend topics.

Today started off with a quick call with a few of my college mates and though I could stay only for about 30 minutes, it was good to catch up. The conversation was about mundane topics, the struggles of online schooling, the Covid situation, vaccinations for kids and so on… but in the end it was good to see them after so long. In Growing Up as a Navy Brat, I had mentioned how I moved constantly and never had time to make best friends in school; but I really do not regret that because the friends I did make along the way are all still my friends and that’s all that matters. I must also admit that I am very picky when it comes to choosing my friends; I may come off as being talkative and social but if you look at my circle, its pretty limited and that’s how I prefer it to be. I’d rather have 5 friends who will be at my door when I need them than 50 who simply stalk my photos on social media and rarely say hello!

How do I define a good friend? To me a good friend is someone whom I can call at midnight and share my concerns, someone who will be there for me, even if we don’t talk regularly… someone who knows that they can expect the same or more from me. And how many such friends do I have? I am lucky enough to have a handful and that’s all I need.

There was a time, during school, when it was a big thing to have a best friend, to exchange colorful friendship bands and greeting cards, to have gangs that would giggle together, gossip together, and get into trouble together. Minus the best friend part, I have experienced everything else well into my college years and beyond. We are all well into adulthood now, but when do meet, we still giggle (a LOT) and gossip; we don’t get into trouble as much because we are all supposedly mature women! (I would take the ‘mature’ very lightly ;-)). The best examples are Ms. M & Ms. G, two of the longest running friendships in my life. We just have to look at each other’s faces or start talking and the next thing we know, we’ll be giggling over something silly. At other times, all we need is to be by each other’s side or take a long stroll, where the silence itself speaks a million words. It is a blessing to have such people in our lives.

Apart from these friends who are super close, I have some relatives who are more like friends: we are close in age, live on different sides of the globe, but can still pick right up from where we dropped off and that’s what makes it a special bond. I am grateful to all these special relationships in my life because without them, my childhood, my teens, and my adulthood would have been very dull.

And last but not the least, I have to mention a very very special friend of mine, one whom I have known for almost 20 years — my designated life partner Mr. P. We started off as friends, fell in love, got married… and after all these years have managed to keep the friendship alive. In my opinion, an element of friendship is key in a marital relationship: it enhances mutual understanding and helps us view the other person in a new light (other than just being husband/wife). I am sure this is the case with many of you, but I just like how we can read each other, without even saying anything. There are only three or four people who have the ability to sense my joy, anxiety, or anger based on a slight change of my tone or expression and Mr. P is one of them and I am thankful for that.

As I conclude, here’s to all my relatives who are like friends, my friends who have become more like relatives and to everyone out there who cherishes their friends! Until I write again, stay healthy, stay safe!

Feature Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels