Celebrate Your Friends

What is your perception of your friendships?
Who do you call when you break up with a boy/girlfriend, get a new job, announce an impending birth, or just need to vent? I’ll even wager that your favorite friends are even on speed dial or voice dial too! Friendship is a huge part of everyday existence. What do you do to nurture these relationships? Do you let your friends know just how much they mean to you? Do you send them cards, always make time for them no matter what, or do they know that they can always count on you? Typically it’s unspoken, but it never hurts to actually tell them how much they really mean to you.

Krista and Faith had been friends since their wild college days. Ten years after graduation and with over 1,200 miles between them, there is no doubt in their minds who their best friend is. They communicate at least once weekly via e-mail or telephone calls, schedule time every couple of years for face-to-face visits, have never missed a major event in each other’s lives, and are more like sisters despite the distance. Gene and Trevor met at their first full-time job five years ago. Neither was brimming with confidence when they began their careers, but no one ever knew it. Instead they’d discuss their close calls, insecurities, and successes together after work over pizza. They no longer work for the same company, but they still get together once a week to trade stories, call each other during the workday to bounce strategies off each other, and Gene has been asked to be Trevor’s best man when he gets married in five months.

Good friendships are mutual, honest, fuel inner fires, provide support, and typically make you feel good. Unfortunately there are friendships that do not fit this description. Like every other area of your life, if a friendship doesn’t make you feel good, why participate in it? So if you have a toxic friendship, let it go. You’ll both be better off for it, as what you resist persists. Recognizing and accepting the situation for what it is, and having the strength to make a break, will pave the way for more positive interactions for both of you.

They say the Friends pilot was based on the fact that when you’re young and single in the City your friends are your family, and that was how Friends came to be. In truth, good friends travel with you on your journey through life - even when you may live thousands of miles apart. While spouses, children, in-laws, etc. may show up on the scene, a good friend is always along for the ride, always a part of your family, and always with you in spirit. Even if you haven't talked in months, the conversation picks up as if you'd just spoken the day before without a beat! Friendship like almost everything else in life is based on perception, but it is acts of friendship that tell the truest picture of all. Let your friends know that you’ll be there for them ‘cause they’re there for you too - in every possible way!