Friendship 101

Magnetic

Before writing this article, I tried to answer some questions designed to help me put together the needed information.

Do you have friends?

Who are they?

How did they become your friends?

And why do you call them friends and not mates or colleagues or neighbors?

I tried to understand what differentiates my friends from others and it isn’t because they know me very well or see me often or because they have my contact number or I have theirs but rather, it is the affection that exists between or among us.

The feeling or affection that exists is a mutual one which gets everyone involved. However, each one of us has a role to play in every relationship. Often times, some people tell me that due to the fact that I don’t care about them and barely check up on them, they also have adapted to it and given me some space.

I had an encounter with another friend who tells me that no matter how hard I push her or make her feel unwanted around me, she will never leave me because she knows how nice I am from within. She will never give an ear to all the negative things people have to say about me.

After listening to all been said, I tried to assess my attitude and realized I cared less someway and somehow. I then realized that friendship can’t be a one sided affair. Sometimes, you need to burst out your anger or let your emotions be known.

Unconsciously, I begun to change towards friendship. There are various ways and circumstances under which people get connected. People get to link up with people because of the neighborhood in which they are, church, school, workplaces, workshops, teams, hostels and many more. Most of us get to meet each other for one reason or the other.

There are three types of friendship which was classified by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. There are friendship based on pleasure, utility and on good. He makes us understand that the friendship based on good are long lasting and is the kind of friendship where individuals wishes nothing but the best for each other. On the other hand, the kind of friendship which doesn’t last longer is the friendship based on pleasure. It is common among the youth and since the youth has an attitude of constant change of mind, what they consider pleasant in their eyes today, seem to be unpleasant as they age. The final one is the kind where people make use of the other for a particular purpose or to achieve a goal and necessarily doesn’t have to be loved.

NB: Some definitions and information were taken from wikipedia.