Who is your friend, really?

Friends! Who are they, really, and who are those we consider as our true friends?  We interact with a lot of people in our lives, but does that make them all friends that we can trust and rely on? In times of dire need, most of us have problems knowing who our real friends are. Many people go through life with only a few friends. They have no one they can call in good or bad times. They are at the mercy of life, standing alone and wallowing away in misery. No one wants to be in such circumstances.

Who then are those we can really call our true friends?  We should not forget that there are friends of circumstances and friends who are forever there for us through thick and thin. There are people who naturally have the tendency to draw people close to them where ever they go. Wherever they go, people like to be associated with them.  When such people are faced with a difficulty, they are in a dilemma deciding which of the friends they can really call on in their time of need. This happens because they have never really taken time out to sieve through the numerous friends they have, to know which one really qualifies.

Amira Ismaila, a businesswoman, says she has had her own fair share of fair-whether friends. “Life is full of various entertaining and invigorating relationships because it is made up of various people we see as friends.  These friends are like a degree course and we only understand them when we study them.  Only then do we really understand the kind of friends they are. Then we can determine if they are friends for convenience or true friends. Friends of convenience are those who are there because of what they gain to achieve by being your friend.  This kind of friendship is peculiar among women.”

“Most people prefer to operate with few friends and feel happy about it. It is better to have a few loyal friends than to have them in tons and in the end lose out on everything including your dignity,” says Aisha Hassan, an accountant. She added that she has seen instances where so-called friends have been responsible for broken homes.

The saying that you do not get to choose your family but you get to choose your friends is very true. We have all experienced friends, good and bad, at particular points in our lives. If you start looking at the ones you have made along life and the reasons for those friendships, you will come to understand why very few were able to make it to the end as true friends.  Many would have one way or the other tried to bring you down or tried to take advantage of the friendship. At the end only very few friends will make it as our very true friends, who love us for who we are and not what we are. Friends are essential in our lives, but then we need to be wise in choosing the type and kind of friends we have and keep.