Here's to The Friends

Have you ever counted the number of friends that you have? & I don’t mean the people that laugh & kid around with you. I mean the people who will actually be there to catch you when you fall, the people who will spend the night holding you while you cry your heart out over a small heartbreak (all heartbreaks seem HUGE at the time, but in retrospect, they become tiny milestones which were necessary for you to become a stronger person), the people who will drive around with you all over the city just because you can’t find the right pair of shoes. Have you ever counted how many of these you have in your life? I have. &, even though I should be, I’m not surprised by the number. I’m happy. After all, the lesser the number, the fewer birthdays I actually have to bring presents to. Being a people’s person, when you don’t have many people who you can truly call your own, you think to yourself, is it because there’s some flaw in your personality that you aren’t aware of or is it because people don’t have a knack of looking & recognizing perfection. Then you laugh to yourself, “Sheesh! Perfection, such a vague concept, & yet so revered.” But at the same time, you feel gratitude, & a feeling of intense love for the people who drove around the city with you for that stupid pair of shoes that you wore only once & then put away in some corner & forgot.

So here’s to that friend who held me tight while I wailed at the injustice of it all, & to the friend who made me coffee to sooth the pain, & to the friend who made sure I studied at least enough to pass my tests, & to the friend who never failed to point out why “they didn’t deserve you”, & to the friend who sat with me on the rooftops in the cold weather just to enjoy the view, & to the friend who gave me a secret of theirs to keep.

& here’s to the friendships that haven’t changed, but only aged, like good wine.