​Friends are those who share our popcorn at the movies, and the ones who help us laugh it off when we fall. Friendship is what calms the raging sea within as well as sets the fire ablaze. Perhaps the best paradox one could think of.

Think about it, when we have people around us who encourage us, who nudge on our shoulders when we are falling prey to the mundane everyday life, we must realize that he or she is a friend! When we are stopped from doing something foolish, when we are appreciated for what we do, and when we are guarded when required, we have friends. I don’t want to categorize friends as good ones and bad. Friends, undoubtedly, are the best!

Let me speak frankly, I have not made amazing friends as others have. Yes, I mean it. I feel, (this is extremely on a personal note), that good friends are gifts and they are not made, they are kept! Treasured.

There are so many people who we call friends, and who turn out to be troublemakers – well, I do believe, they are friends too. I feel those who share their time with us and those who invest their efforts to be with us are friends. They may have different intentions and may want to harm us. However, if we are clear in our conscience, they are friends!

To me, each person has a part to play in our lives. Good or bad, someone being in our lives has a reason. Today, let us take all those people who claimed to be our friends and those who “stabbed” our backs. Let us heal by calling them, friends. It is because of them that we learned how to be and how not to be. It is they who taught us that life is not a bed of roses and that this world is a competitive one!

Today, let us break the norms of who our are friends are. Let us heal by calling them our friends too – I truly know for a fact that they perhaps taught us much more about life, gave us life lessons than any of our true friends ever did…

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