Synopsis of a Lasting Friendship

This particular kind of relationship is even calculatedly included in one of human fundamental needs. As social beings, humans need that collective belongingness as essential for living and rationality. “No man is an island” as they say. There are many individual definitions of friendship. Your definition might quite differ a little bit with mine but they all bear the same core. Friendship is a link or a bond between species, humans or animals that share a special attachment, mutual interest and fondness towards each other’s beings, characters, personalities and mere existence. 

From absolute acquaintances to sharing lunch together, to pajama sleep over party, to contributing juicy details of personal lives, friendship is the expressway to our general happiness. The transition from acquaintanceship to friendship is largely characterized by an accrued increase in both the breadth and depth of self-disclosure. It’s from revealing ourselves that we find friendship truly fulfilling and thriving. Friendship adds a little more color to any kind of relationship. How great is it to be friends with your spouse, your siblings, your mother or even your pet? When you leave the realm of buddymate for the exclusive zone of genuine friendship from self disclosure, bonding happens. 

We bond when we share related values and similar interests with that distinct comrade. We personally bond when each soul could speak the same language and discern how to translate each other’s essence. The sharing of each other’s depth will bring two mutually interested individuals with one another, that bonding feeling. Then, we get to feel tender fondness towards them. We like to consume our seconds conversing with them. Peeling ourselves inch by inch so that the other person can perceive us deeply. With the same degree in reciprocity, friendship thrives.  

How friendship gets broken is up to a kind of tango you both are dancing from the outset. If the tempo of the tango is erratic, there is a chance the dance is not as harmonious as how it should be. There’s always unforeseeable circumstances that will arise in our lives. It’s how we heedfully react to each latitude and how we handle our temperament towards such case that will eventually dictate the outcome. I love when pleasant transparency is added in the mix of friendship. Not requiring total transparency but exacting inner honesty towards each other’s differences. It might be difficult to discuss personal issues if it comes to be in that depth, to put everything on the table but heralding friendship as more important than an issue. It’s unyielding but not impossible. I’d rather be cruelly denigrated right in my face than get a destructive whispered pep talk from a green-tinged-face friend. Wounded minds are tougher to mend than broken hearts.

We deliberately choose our friends. We choose to whom we allow our bare souls defenseless for a scanning eye. We choose with whom to explore all the wondrous adventures life has to offer. We choose who to share our blow-by-blow of our dramathon and expose our naked vulnerability. I feel socially in sync with an individual who has eyes of understanding that nobody’s perfect than disparage you with a third party. A being with an utmost ability to see beyond words is a great character with a genuine soul to keep as a friend. But how can you distinguish a mortal with a bona fide core? Climb that ladder of success. When these comrades of yours see you up there and offer a genuine congratulations, you’ll know. This is one of those recognizable gestures that heralds an authentic heart. 

I’m very grateful that in my years of living, I have seen authentic people in my life and I called them friends, real friends. Physical proximity has little effect on the ability to keep a friendship in working order. It’s never a friendship death knell it once was, gratitude for the net. I still have cherished friends from the Philippines I’m still in close contact with up until now. Interaction is another essential in tending to a friendship. At the end of the day, the intimacy that makes a friendship thrive must be a relished one, the more gratifying and rewarding a friendship, the more we have tender feelings about it, the more we’re willing to splurge the zest it takes to keep it alive.