I think friends are one of the most important things in this world. Today I went out with an old friend from high school. I never got to hang out with her since we graduated and only saw her in passing. When I got home today I realized that that was the only time I have ever hung out with her one on one. She was one of my best friends from high school, and today was the first time I hung out with her alone. This made me realize that I took our friendship for granted. But not just hers and I took a lot of my true friendships for granted.
For me, there were a lot of iffy friendships in high school. I grew up in a small town in South Dakota and went to a school with barely 200 kids from pre-school to 12th grade. As we grew up some of my friends started to act differently than they usually did. Maybe it was just them growing up, but I thought they acted differently and by the way they would treat me, I would question if we were still friends my friends. But this one friend in particular was always the same, of course, we would disagree at times but she was always the same and didn’t change. I always knew we would be friends and never questioned it. But as I grew up I would sometimes change so that I could hang out with my iffy friends. She was also subjected to the same iffy friends, so we were in the same boat. But I didn’t care because I wanted to hang out with my iffy friends and not my real friends. Which is exactly what I didn’t want to happen to me. But I left her for them all the time and now I regret it. and I wish I could have been more of a friend to her.
A lot of people have bad experiences with friends. Sometimes friendships fade and some end on a bad note. But even after all this time since graduation we still managed to pick up where we left off in high school, without making it awkward, and got to hang out. I never appreciated our friendship until now. Hanging out with her today lifted my spirits and gave me the break I needed. She even went out of the way to come pick me up at my college, because she remembered the one time I told her that I didn’t like driving.
So all I want to say is pick your friends right? Know who is your actual friends and do not try to please friends who aren’t worth your time. Choose friends that want to and choose to hang out with you. Don’t stress over people you are trying to please and see the friends that are right in front of you. I am so happy that I have such a great friend like her and I hope we can stay friends for a long time.