An Ode To Friendships
For decades, we have grown up with the notion that we’ll eventually meet someone(s), fall in love, and then get married. We might even fall in love more than once, enter a partnership with the same sex, or opt to live together and never sign that marriage license. The image of what constitutes a modern day romantic relationship has broadened. However, what hasn’t shifted all that much is that this specific relationship is considered the planet around which all other relationships orbit. We seek out romantic partners. When we find the “one” (or one of the ones), we hold on tightly and hope to never lose them.
What if friendship, not marriage, was at the center of life?
There are typically no social scripts that lay out how a friendship should look like, or how they should evolve. There are no games. There is little to no pressure to impress or please each other—we can simply be ourselves. Close friends are like family. They will see you at your highest and lowest and still love you unconditionally. Given that our friends can be our go-to confidants, why don’t we glorify these relationships more? What if we put more time and energy into cultivating stronger, supportive, and meaningful friendships?
Friends can make us laugh, smile, sometimes they can make us cry both happy and sad tears—ultimately they make us feel not alone. There is just so much love in this world that we can afford to devote extra to our friends. Contrary to the thought that when we meet our “significant other,” we will feel happier and fuller, let’s take a moment to remember that friends too get us through much of this crazy thing we call life.
