What does friendship mean to me?

It has been said that if you can get through this life with one REAL friend, you are rich beyond measure.  I would agree with this.  Are these people friends or are they more wannabe friends?  Are they in your life because they truly love you or do they want something?  What do they gain by being your friend?
 More importantly, what do you gain by being their’s?  Do we call them friends because we want it to be so or are they really a bonafide, would do anything for you at any hour of the day or night no matter the issue or request, cry with you while laughing at wild antics, seeing through any problem and never judging and take your secrets to the grave kind of friend?  I just don’t know.  Social networking has skewed all of this.  I have always tried to be a real friend to people.  I never have an agenda.  I never say one thing and mean another.  I have noticed that some people who claim to be friends really aren’t.  It hurts.  Sometimes a person’s political views can push people away (this has happened to me) and to them you should say good riddance.  If politics overtakes “real” friendship, they were never needed in your life in the first place.
It’s sad when a person plays mind games under the guise of friendship.  I have noticed this all around me recently which prompted this post.  I have watched friends be torn apart inside by so-called-friends.  I don’t understand how people can proclaim to be another’s friend when they so obviously aren’t.    I can spot it a mile away and not much else can turn me off so quickly.  I have pulled away from people over my 46 years because their agenda is so darned obvious and I am sure you have, too.  It’s no fun to be played like a fiddle!
So, what does friend mean to you?  To me it means one who has your back, one who loves you no matter what, one who defends you, comes to your aid, one who listens with nothing to gain just because you need to talk.  A real friend has no agenda.  They don’t look you in the eye and say one thing and then go behind your back and say another.  They don’t ignore you and cast you aside and then act shocked when you are hurt by it.  Friends never think of themselves first but put you first.  If someone in your life proclaims to be your friend, gauge their treatment of you.  If you are wronged, you need to ask yourself if this really was a friendship or was it a wannabe friendship?  Don’t set yourself up for the hurt.
Life is short.  Cull your real friends.  Make the rest earn their YOU time.  Value you and choose to stop the nonsense with so-called-friends.  This applies to family, too.  Blood is thicker than water but I fully believe that family can blow it, too.  You don’t have to lie down and be a doormat for anyone. 

Friendship to me means respect. It means being there for one another through good times and bad. It means being honest with each other. Never backstabbing one another. Being able to pick a phone up day or night and say I need you or them say they need you and your there. Accepting each other just as you are. I could go on and on friendship is the most beautiful gift in the world. 

Someone to share all the up's and down's, someone to be there and have togetherness. Someone to lean on, and someone I can offer a shoulder for them to lean on. Friendship is the most important thing in life to me. It makes life so much more meaningful and more enjoyable.

The true meaning of friendship is when you consider the other person's well-being to be as valuable as your own.  If you feel this way about a person, you are truly their friend.
If you consider that another person's good is as important as your own, you will treat them the way friends are supposed to treat each other.  You will make sacrifices for them when, by doing so, you can help them.  You will make sure that you are behaving in ways that will not hurt them.  This is the essence of friendship.
If you are not friends with someone, you may care about their happiness, but not as much as you care about your own.  But if you are true friends, you will care as much for the other as you do for yourself.
 

Friendship is that relationship in which two people may share openly and equally with each other. A true friend will listen more than lecture; help more than criticize, pick one up when he falls, and share happiness, joys, griefs and fears. A real friend will not always tell one what one wishes to hear; but will always tell one what he needs to hear. A friend will be there for one when no one else will, and will always put your happiness above his own. A true friend laughs with one, not at one, and will always be there when needed. 

 

True friendship is unconditional. It is when you care for and love a person whatever their faults and failings, and they treat you in the same way. It is reciprocal: both parties consider the good of the other as equal to their own. True friends accept difference, but share commonalities. A true friend makes you happy, can criticise without hurting and is unafraid to tell the truth. True friends can accept truth from each other. 

As I have grown older I think that true friendship is one that stands the test of time. I have friends from my high school years that I have not seen for years at a time but when we do see each other we are able to pick up right where we were so long ago.

 

 

Friends, a True one
Is hard to find.. But lucky to have :)

 

Someone who understands without asking, and always knows the best ways to make you feel good about yourself and life in general.  

 

JT

I used to think that friend is my second family, which is more important than others, after family. I'll love them as much as a lover would be able to love, i'll keep them safe as good as those parents who wants to keep their child safe, i'll defend them as much as a loyal soldier would do anything for his King, and for his state.

 

Betrayal, stabbing, etc. Everything changed, no more loyalty, no more honestly. What everyone wants is only satisfaction. You'll start feeling lonely, in the crowd. You'll start feeling like everything blames you. You'll start to give in, and resigned from the social life. Or maybe you'll just accept and try to fit in, even you dont.

-Someone who is UNAFRAID to tell you the TRUTH even she/he knows that it might hurts you. But they wont let you dying in lies."

-Some pahps were taken from other people's thoughts and opinions of what they think about the meaning of friendship-