The Cycle of Friendship

Friends! They are what made schools more fun and bearable. 

Friends! Those unsung heroes who had our backs throughout the hard times in life. 

Friends! Those monsters who came to your house, ate your food, got your parents praises and ate more of your food. 

Friends! Sometimes we have great, life long ones, and other times we have the shittiest of the lot. 

I thought I write about the circle of friendship and as I set writing I thought about the content and realized that we don't always have a circle of friends but we mostly have a cycle of friends. Here is my take on the cycle of friendship.

I feel many times we take our friends for granted and other times we expect too much of our friends. In the fast paced world that we live in where we are too busy to physically meet up with other but we have time to post our food before devour it. Where we dont make an effort to call our friends but look for wifi to send a viber message. Where we get updates on our friends lives by stalking their social media profile. Friends! there used to be a circle of us. Now it has become a cycle.

How do you decide who your friends are? 
How do you evaluate the depth of your friendship with someone?
Who is your best friend?

These are some questions I asked myself before I set to write this friendly piece :-)

Our first friends are usually our siblings, cousins, neighbours or those we meet at pre-school. The cycle begins from when we are toddlers. If you go to school with these preschool buddies you don't have to make new friends. You were either introduced in preschool by teachers/ parents or you just became friends. 

Throughout primary school we have those little dramas; 
(i) She took my things. 
(ii) She pulled my hair. 
(iii) That is my seat. and Blah Blah Blah. 

When we go to high school things change a little. Especially if you go to a new school. If some of your friends carry on with you from Primary school, you are lucky. Otherwise the cycle begins again. "Hi, my name is..." You suss out who is who and who you would like to hang out with. A new school, for high school, means a clean slate. Any of those embarrassing moments from Primary school dies in the yards of that school. High school brings a whole new level of issues. 
For starters it brings about Puberty. It is a rather confusing time. You want to be with the popular kids, you want good grades, you (may) want a boy/girl friend, you want to create loads of memories. But no one wants to have any embarrassing moments. The fact is; if you don't have any embarrassing moments what will you laugh about when you are older? 
Anyways, Friends in high school. Sometimes these friends back stab! Some cheat on your friendship. Others cheat on you! They steal your girl/boyfriend; they steal your friends and make their own circle. I know of a few people who spent all recess and lunch in the Library because the books didn't judge them! But High School shouldn't be like that. High school should be fun :-) It is a time we will cherish forever! 

Once you finish high school you can choose to stay in touch with these friends or make new ones all over again. The thing is, once high school ends we are at a cross road. For many the options are limited while for the others the options are endless. Go to University. Move from your hometown. Start a job. Take a gap year. Move to another country. Get married. Go backpacking across the globe. And whichever of these options you take you will meet people. New dorm buddy, new lab partner, new workmates, new flatmates, someone new next to you on the flight/train/bus or boat. 

Lucky are those who stay connected to the 'close' friends (besties) throughout the different phases of life BUT it also is fun to make new friends. For not only do you get the clean slate but you get to discover so much about yourself and about others. 

I feel many times we take our friends for granted and other times we expect too much of our friends. In the fast paced world that we live in where we are too busy to physically meet up with other but we have time to post our food before devour it. Where we dont make an effort to call our friends but look for wifi to send a viber message. Where we get updates on our friends lives by stalking their social media profile. Friends! there used to be a circle of us. Now it has become a cycle.
So, don't just think of friendship as a circle. Think of it as a CYCLE. You make friends, you grow with them. If you feel like you aren't growing with them then time to move on. Communication is key to good friendship. And some friends get jealous when you make new friends. It is important to share your time with friends and to communicate with them. With technology communication is so much easier then ever before. 

Friends! We love them. We laugh with them. We laugh at them.
Friends! They are there when we need them. Sometimes they are there when we don't need them. 
Friends! Some of us have many. While some of us have none. 
Friends! The cycle of friendship continues. 

until next blog....