It Happened Unknowingly…
They say that best friendships take birth in the most unexpected ways and I cannot agree more. Almost a month that I started with my masters and my lifestyle has changed completely. I don’t realise, how the day passes by following a series of events even after being at home. Gone are the days when being home was all about having good food and time of leisure. The schedule is tiresome, but I still feel positive at the end of the day. I feel stronger and it is because of those who care about me and are there to support me without any conditions.
I feel a true friend is the best gift that life can give you. A few days back, it was friendships day and surprisingly I drafted this write up not remembering it, just a day before, as a dedication to three of my closest friends. I have been disorganised with my studies from the very time of choosing my subjects, but these are the people who have been there for me from the day I didn’t even take a step into this journey. They are the ones who persuaded me to take this up, but they are the only ones who cannot see me working endlessly.
It makes me feel so blessed, every time I open my phone with texts like, “Are you okay?”, “Do you need any help?”, “Did you have proper sleep?”.Replying to these texts, I always wonder, what could happen to me having these people around. These people are not my parents, but they are my family. Despite every message I give a chance to be missed while scrolling down my chatbox, these are the ones that make me feel the most positive and safest at times. No matter how hectic the schedule might get, I always feel that I have someone who I can vent it out on if something is there on my mind.
Family matters, but what matters, even more, is the love and attention you get from someone whose womb was not the same as yours, who didn’t take birth in the same environment as you did and maybe all the people in your life doesn’t make sense to them, but they still empathised and managed to stay in your life when everyone else walked away.
The best part about true friendship is that there are no conditions attached to it. Good friendships take time to develop. No one on the first day of meeting each other can predict, how the future might look like and we should give that space to each other for this bond to nurture. Not that everything has been greener with these friends from the very beginning, and I agree that we have had pitfalls dealing with each other’s uncertainties, but what kept us going are the miniature learnings from bad experiences, listening to each other and never leaving hands what so ever. Years have passed by, we have come a long way, but our honesty and admiration for each other have helped us survive it all.
Muhammad Ali once said,
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you haven’t learned anything.”
These words make much more sense when I am trying to write this. I agree that friendship cannot be taught in schools, but we experience our first friendships most purely during our early days at school. Unknowingly, we connect with those who can empathise, not only sympathise, the ones who can do everything just by doing nothing and the ones who set every norm of the normal world apart by accepting the abnormal us by residing by our sides in the wildest of the storms.
Friendship is a thread that two people hold and this bond and every other relationship requires equal efforts from both the people holding this thread. The hope of sustainability resides in the hand of the two persons who held it together. No one is perfect and accepting each other’s differences is what sets this relationship apart from every other.
My best friend and I have ten different perspectives to two different sides of a coin which often leads to clashes, but what binds us together is the invisible force to remain on one side despite all the differences. No matter how we end, we always get back to the square one encountering roadblocks in our journey, holding hands tighter than before and trusting each other more than ever. This is where the actual beauty of this relationship lies.
This relationship is one of those unexpected bonds where transparency collides to tell the world that imperfect people can make it perfect too and that there can be space for love, respect and compassion to blossom most beautifully without any judgements and age bars. Friendships can take birth in rehabs, philosophy sessions, diving classes and almost everywhere you cannot even think of.
Every friendship teaches us something and gives us memories worth looking back into. But the best part is, the colours might fade away but you always have something to cherish about. I cannot believe that even after writing so much, I have so much more to say. But here I take a stop and thank all those who stayed with me, accepted me, tolerated the imperfect me and loved me without any expectations and questions. I love you back even more! And a warning — this ride ain’t ending anytime sooner.
