Friends are the family we choose. As a child friendship didn’t mean a lot to me. Friendship was just a term for someone that I interacted with. Every person that was a part of my life was considered my friend. But as I grew older my definition of friendship became more meaningful and deeper. The memories and experiences of my childhood crafted my definition of friendship as an adult. Experiences of happiness, betrayal, making memories, having fun, being there, comforting, sharing both joys and sorrows, etc helped me build a better definition of friendship.
I realised that friends are always close to your heart. So my friends consisted of a very small circle of people who shared everything with each other without the fear of judgement. People I interacted with everyday were merely acquaintances and not considered my friends.
I realised that losing people and moving on is a part of life. I thought it would leave a hole in my life and that I’ll miss those people but as the years passed by I learned that they my childhood was just a passing phase leading to a greater destination. I realised how to leave behind the past. Life has changed a lot in the transition from childhood to teenage to adult. I realised what true friendship meant. I learnt to understand what things were important in life. There was a shift in priorities from materialism to more important things such as relationships with people, time, love etc. I learnt to focus on myself and to let go of the things and people that don’t matter. Life only happens once so we should make sure to live it right. We may make mistakes but we should get back up and learn from them. We should never lose hope and not let any mistakes or failures bring us down.
My definition of friendship changed to a small group of people who shared everything without judgement, both joys and sorrows, was able to be oneself, was not limited, encouraging one another, making time for each other, etc. We were always there for each other. Whenever we fell we would help pick ourselves back up and continue living. Quality became more important than quantity. I realised that we had to live our lives to the fullest and not just merely exist in this world.
Fear of failure and striking out should never stop us from following our dreams. I was able to follow my passion of making brownies and cakes and turn it into a business opportunity (although it’s on hold for a while because of my university examination). I realised what things in life were important and what to focus on. I was able to focus on building myself to be a better person to myself and to the ones around me. I learnt that kindness goes a long way and it’s only because of that I’ve been living all along and not just existing.
Building new friendships and relationships wasn’t always that easy but it wasn’t impossible. Family took an important role in my life and they also helped me keep going. We should quit merely trying to get by and start living. Life is not a problem that needs solving but rather a reality to be experienced.
Cheryl – Reposted from youthof2020stories on Instagram, a humansof2020 initiative
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