Hello all.
I know I promised everyone many great, inspiringly abundant posts to come back when I started this personal blog in September, however, as many of you are aware of, I did hit an unexpected turn in life. On September 23rd of this year, this world lost a very beautiful person, who happened to also be one of my dearest friends.
I decided that despite the sensitivity of the subject, I would share my thoughts with the rest of you, as I truly believe they may collectively serve as meaningful insight to those who may have one or multiple best friends.
Such a simple concept-- a best friend. With such a simple concept, comes simple, and sometimes loose, definition, right? With this very same loose definition, comes a profound lapse in the everyday understanding of what a best friend, and therefore a best friendship, does for you and your life as you move forward.
Depending on one's age, or stage of life, the definition of a best friendship, and what it does for the one in question, varies. One might say that a best friend is someone to always complain to. One might say that a best friend is someone who they can go out drinking with. One might say that a best friend is someone that they can go to when all else fails. The list goes on.
What I say, after almost three full months of genuine reflection, is that a best friendship is much more than all of that previously mentioned, and more. It is all-encompassing, more than you would ever think. Many believe that their education, their work, and their self-efforts are the best preparation for the battles of life-- but it's actually quite the contrary. Rather, best friendship prepares you for the battles of life, all of them, more than anything else, whether you realize it or not. It prepares you for your education, for your professional life, for your significant and insignificant other relationships, for your successes, for your failures, for your current and future family, and for your eventual happiness.
A best friendship unconditionally nurtures you, no matter what the circumstances may be. A best friendship unconditionally pushes you and challenges you to do good, no matter how much that may disservice you. No education, no professional work experience, and no self-effort can ever amount to the unconditional push that a best friend will serve as.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, the meaning behind a best friendship, regardless of the definition, or regardless of the stage of life one is in, is all the same. When you really take a step back to thoroughly understand what a best friendship does, you come to realize that it is not so simple at all. Instead, it is quite phenomenal. It is one of the beauties of life that cannot be purchased, that cannot be learned or taught in school, and that can certainly not be fabricated.
So today, and everyday moving forward, I challenge all of you to embrace those who you may view as your best friend, whether it be your child-hood / adult-hood peer, your close or distant relative, significant other, etc. Treat them and prioritize them as much as you prioritize your profession, your education, or your self-effort. Embrace them for all that they have done for you, both directly and indirectly, and for what they will continue to do as the future comes.
Invest time in your best friendship(s), regardless of how tough things may be, regardless of how busy you may be, regardless of how rich or poor you may be, and regardless of how well you think things may be going for you. When you are at a loss for motivation, stop what you are doing and realize that it may be a phone-call or text message away-- your best friend. Because after all, this element of life, this concept of a best friend, is not so simple at all.