No human being can do without friends. We all need people to talk to, who know and understand us better, and whom we can understand well. There are various conceptions today about friendship and the concept itself is broad. Some people consider a friend to be someone who helps them. Others define a friend as someone they are attracted to, whose company they enjoy and with whom they do things together.
Dictionary.com defines a friend as a “person attached to another by affection or regard.” In practical terms however, how do you know whether someone is your friend or you are someone’s friend?
Your friend is someone who knows you. This knowledge is beyond statistics about you such as name, sex and age. Your friend knows you much better than that. He/she knows your likes and dislikes. They can read your mood and tell when you are not happy. They know your past and present, and your hopes for the future.
Your friend is also someone whom you know in the manner described above.
Your friend is someone who trusts you, and whom you trust. Because they know you, your friends understand what you can do. They understand your values and can almost always tell how you will respond to a particular situation. They trust you and do not doubt what you tell them. They believe you mean well and so have confidence that you will not hurt them or deceive them.
Your friend defends your interest. He protects your interest. While growing up as a child, we played with our peers, and sometimes there was a contention involving your friend and someone else. If we were called in to testify, we usually would not say anything until we understood our friend’s interest and how we could protect it.
Your friend keeps your secrets and does not leak them to others. Some of those secrets could be fears or weaknesses. Your friend does not leak them to the public thereby disgracing or embarrassing you.
Your friend shares your interests. He protects them most of the time because they are also his interests. The interests could be likes, dislikes, opinions or beliefs. They could also be business, religious, political or health interests. For instance, if I am a politician, my friend is likely to share my political views. Most times therefore, your friend thinks along the same line as yourself.
Types of Friends
Going by what they do together and how they relate to one another, friends can be classified in various ways.- Political Friends: Friends in this category are held together by political interests. They may not agree on many other issues, but when it comes to politics, they work together and trust each other.
- Business Friends: These ones are linked by business interests. They may not necessarily agree on other issues like religion or politics, but they enjoy doing business together.
- Casual Friends: They could be held together by any kind of interests, but the striking feature is that their friendship does not last long or go beyond those interests. They may not know much about each other or even trust each other on other issues.
- Intimate Friends: Friends are usually brought together by an interest, but once the union is formed, they discover more and more reasons to remain together. Sometimes emotions are freely shared and lasting attachment is developed. They can therefore become intimate.
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