Back in our schooling days in uniforms and pinafores, we were told that our friends will last forever. From friendship rings, matching clothes, secret handshakes and languages – we never really thought much about tomorrows; tomorrows without one another. Even at home, our conversations with our parents were filled with “what he did”, “what she said” and “where we went”.
No one warned us about the Crossroads. Some of us knew, but chose to not think about it. After all, why worry about the future when the present was so insanely fun?
But alas, like the many inevitable stages in life, we all found ourselves standing at the roundabout wondering which turn to take. And suddenly, friendship rings, matching clothes, secret handshakes and languages don’t matter anymore because it seemed like everyone else had them too. All we had left, were Promises. Promises so fragile, so easily broken by Change. As each of us embark on our own Paths, we can only Hope to return to the same junction one day and see each other again. This usually happens by the time we all turn Seventeen. I think that is an even more crucial age than Twenty-One.
There isn’t one true definition about what true friends are. No, there are many. We define true friends based on what we need in a friend according to the different times in our lives. When we’re at the lowest points in our lives, we define true friends as those who would be our crying shoulders. When we have things to say, yet unsure of how to say them, our true friends are those who can comprehend our thoughts just by looking at us.
To the idealists, true friends are those who would lay down their lives for you. But I say, as much truth as that sentence contains, that could only happen once. There is one act that is more painful and it happens more often than we think.
Because most of the time, true friends are just those who would put their ego and pride on the line for you.
Sings out loud in public with you, take a spin with you on the dance floor even when no one else is dancing, makes fun of you and allows to be made fun at, and yet sits and listens to you when you need to be heard. Someone who doesn’t mind that her favourite color is not yours. That differences are crucial, and similarities are just plain awesome.
We Meet and Leave at the crossroads over and over again. No one warned us about that routine.
“I could sit here with you guys all night.”
“It’d be crazy to sit here in the afternoon though.”
“Yeah. And the grass is kinda pokey too.”
“The grass is poking my buuuutttt!”
“Nah, sit on my sandals.”
“Ahhh.. that’s why you’re the engineer…”
“Oh shut up. But yeah. I could sit here with you guys all night.”
We were told that our friends will last forever. Here’s to some of us who still Believe in that.
