It’s weird to think that a little under two months ago, I was living in Taiwan still working as an English teacher. And now I am in Florida, working and mostly settled into a new pattern and a new set of routines. While so much has changed, I was recently reminded that really, when it comes down to it not that much has altered.
Growing up, my mother used to tell me there are three kind of friends: the frenemies, the friends who stay for a chapter of your story, and the friends who stay for the whole story. Let me break it down further.
The frenemies are the ones who come into your life on purpose, entering quietly because your friendship is something of a benefit to them. Whether or not they help you in the same manner doesn’t really matter to them, just as long as you assist them. This friendship is short lived because, well, quite honestly, who wants to maintain a friendship that is purely beneficial for one party and not the other?
The one chapter friends as I like to call them are influential to you, but they are not the type to grow with you. Sometimes they just stop growing after you have learned from them, or perhaps they grow on their own. Either way, you have your adventures, your lessons, and then one day, you realize in the simplest of moments that despite how awesome they are, you have outgrown them. Maybe you see them less than you used to as time goes on, but often, these are the friends you just lose touch with eventually.
And then there’s the last category of friends: the forever friends. However they came into your life, it was by pure accident. Maybe you got roomed together in university. Or you probably went to the same Starbucks that one time and picked up their drink by accident, only to awkwardly switch it so you could have your almond milk and they could have their 2% milk.
But they didn’t leave your life after that. Slowly but surely, they invaded your life (in the best way possible) and then, months after that first meeting, you have a hard time remembering what life was like without them. And that’s how you feel even years into the future with them.
Forever friends come into your life naturally and stay. They don’t need to communicate or see you every single day or week, and they don’t take it personally when you are busy with your projects because they have their own. They are the friends who truly grow alongside you, because they understand that people change. Circumstances shift, but your friendship is one of the constants in your life, and no matter how much you change, you will always be there for each other. This is why they are forever friends. Not for now friends.
No matter what age or stage of your life you’re in, hold tight to the forever friends in your life. It doesn’t matter where they are in the world, because we live in an era where technology defeats all excuses. And when you finally meet up with your forever friends again, it’s like nothing has changed. Even when the entire landscape around you seems to have flipped on end, you turn to them and they’ll be there, like always, willing to stand by you as you figure out where your next chapter leads you. And when you complete that chapter, they’ll be there for the next. And so on and so forth. Because they may not have been there for the beginning of your story, but they’ll be there till the very end of it.
Thank you to my forever friends, scattered around the world as close by as Florida and as far as Taiwan. I feel so lucky to know each and every one of you, and I can’t wait to see where our current life chapters lead us to next.
