Friend,
come along for the ride
The 39th President of our great country, Hubert H. Humphrey, once said, “The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”
Friendship is indeed a gift. To share a bond with someone void of judgment, stressful expectations, or pointless passive aggression is a tremendous gift. Most of us feel most confident when we are with our friends. Without them, we rely on our phones to help us feel less awkward in public places. Friends are our loyal confidants who we can tell anything to and vice versa. It feels good to have someone who you know will always be there by your side.
As you grow older, you can come to realize that unlike a romantic relationship, a friendship can easily withstand distance. This means that friendship goes beyond borders. It is totally possible to care about someone who is completely different from you in every way. However, even though you guys may not shop at the same stores, eat the same foods, or even listen to the same music, they still go through the same things you do.
They experience youth and puberty, which are huge reasons we cling to our friends and bond with them in the first place. Across the world, there are young men giggling at a girl they think who is pretty and a girl arguing with her mother about what she wants to wear. Teens are teens worldwide. What makes teens so special is their capacity for friendship without bounds. The youth are the leaders of most progressive changes; and so, I believe through communication beyond the barrier of government-made borders, we can achieve a higher level of enlightenment on what it means to be a human or…a friend.
Regardless if you celebrate on July 30th or the next day, just make sure you take time out of your busy life to spend quality time with those you value. If your friends live across oceans or continents, then take the effort to FaceTime them and genuinely listen to the problems they are going through in their own hectic lives. It is so helpful for us to take off the superficial face we show the world and come clean to our closest confidants.
If you have been lucky enough to find someone to call a best friend, then definitely work to keep them around. It should not be too much work on your part but do not make the mistake of believing your friends do not need affection and attention, they are all human, just like you.
July 30th marks the International Day of Friendship.
Janay' Lee
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