What do friends mean to you?

Right – here goes with my first proper blog on a particular subject…

Friends. We all like having them. But at what cost? How do you make sure the people you think are your friends – do have your best interests at heart? How much time should you invest in your friends?

I guess there are a lot of people out there (hopefully reading this) that are wondering about their place in a particular friendship. Perhaps there are people who are feeling unloved by their friends? There is always something that can be done.

I am very lucky as a human being; I have lots of friends and more importantly close friends. I’m not boasting, but I acknowledge that the people who become part of my life deserve to be appreciated. And that’s where I want to start. Having friends is all about wanting to have them around. If you only have certain friends that you use for certain things, you should be ashamed. If you only have a friends you call at 3am for a lift home from the club, then unless you’d be willing to do the same for them, you should stop calling them - and of course stop calling them a friend too.

Its perfectly fine to have ‘friends for occasions’ – this is where you may have a friend you go drinking with, the kind of mate you can sit down over a pint and chew over all the wrong in the world and put it to rights. However, this may not be the same friend that you would take to your girlfriend’s barbeque. Unless they brought potato salad…

If you are anything like me, you will have a core group of people that you are willing to spend time with and happy to be on the phone / round in a flash to help them out. These are the people you wish were part of your family. Hell, they ARE part of my family. I love ‘em to bits, in a totally heterosexual, manly, fighting zombie’s back to back kind of way. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

The real question is do you know the difference between a friend and an acquaintance? An acquaintance is someone you are friendly to, but either don’t have anything in common or that you don’t want to / haven’t had the chance to get to know better. You never start a friendship without this stage. When you first met your best friend(s) I bet you had this stage. It’s natural, but if you don’t let people in soon enough – that friendship is lost. The deep kind that is.

The testament to this is that I have one of my best friends still in my life and I met him at playschool. That was 25 years ago.

I love my friends and I’ll always be there for them, because they will always be there for me.

Awww bless.

Til next time,

Snarevandamm