Remaining Friends

What does friendship bring in a man's life? Does it mean anything to him or to the other person/people involved?

Months near the end of last year, I found myself asking, "Is my presence needed for them? Do I really have to be with them? Do I really "belong" to someone like them? Or am I just a nobody trying to be someone just to be with them?"

I even reached the point wherein I stopped talking and seeing them. I stopped having lunch with them. I avoided them during class breaks. I went home alone. Soon, I eventually went on my own.

I created a great barrier separating me from the people I have grown to be with. I created a wall separating me from the people whom I always considered as my "sisters-by-heart".

At first, I thought I was doing the right thing. I started to accept the fact that I am not someone like them. Or atleast not someone like them, which others expect me to be. I thought it was "okay". I thought nobody noticed anything at all. I thought nobody cares.

Then a few weeks later, people started noticing the "barrier" I made, the "wall" I built. Classmates started asking me questions like, "How come you're not with them anymore? Did something came up? Did you have a fight or something?" And all I could say was, "No. Nothing happened." Then I readily change the topic or most of the time, move away. Away from the people who did nothing but to ask what's wrong. Away from the people I barely know.

Then I started regretting what I did. I started "losing my defenses". I don't know why I did that "barrier" thing. Nothing else mattered anymore aside from the fact that instead of knowing who I really am, I started losing myself.

I started writing letters for my friends. But never had the courage to hand it to them. But luckily, a close classmate of mine saw the letter I made and handed it to them. The next thing I know, there they are excusing me from my Trigonometry class. When I went out, I saw them crying with the letter on their hands. I read the letter again, this time personally to them. And I started to cry too. You may think it's corny. Maybe it was. Maybe we are. May be I am. But I tell you, being corny can do you a lot of wonders. For instance, I regained our friendship.

And that's what of the few things that matters in this world.

FRIENSHIP QUOTES that means a lot to me:

" A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away."- Arabian Proverb
- In our friendship, there's no room for "kaplastikan". You have to be you. And not to be anybody else. Some people may not understand and accept who I really am. But my friends do.


"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."- Anais Nin
- My world wouldn't be complete without their laughter, words of wisdom and "kalokohan" at times.

"A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself."
- I tend to be pessimistic at times. And when I do, I can always count on my friends and hear them say, "Kaya mo yan! Ikaw pa!"