“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” – Muhammad Ali
I started with this beautiful friendship quote because I’m going to talk about Friendship in this article. Friendship is a very unique relationship. Friends are not related to us by blood, even though they won’t have any expectation in the relationship they are always with us to support, to help, and to find purpose and meaning in our life. For me, they’re one of my major pillars in my life. The emotional bond between my friends and I helped me to recover back my strength, especially during pre and post-surgery. In this article, I would like to share how my friends helped me to build back my strength during my early days of being diagnosed with Crohn’s.
My friends have been good listeners. Whenever I have problems, the first group of people that I look for are my friends, not even my family, because my friends are willing spend their time to listen to my problems and my feelings. They’re fully present when I start to talk. There are no distraction such as phones, people, or work, and they give their 100% focus to what I’m saying. I was in campus during the time I was officially diagnosed with Crohn’s. I was depressed, and they were the ones l looked for to talk to and to share of my health condition with. Once I uttered everything I wanted to say, they kept silent for a moment and then they started to give their suggestions. The point is, they listened and digested my problem before giving their best solution. I think this is the best part of friendship because they didn’t jump to conclusions. Instead, they listened to me first.
They cheer me up with great humor. My friends do understand laughter is one of best medicines to keep me healthy. My friends, unlike myself, are funny and their sense of humor always bring me happiness. In our conversations, there are always some funny jokes that make me laugh. Even when I’m in a bad mood, they are able to make me laugh and refresh my mood and cheer me up. In fact, friends with a good sense of humor can make our world feel good. Whenever I spend time with them, I never have a thought of pains, depression, or that I have Crohn’s.
Another great quality of my friends is that they care about my daily activities. This is an important quality that my friends show toward me that I really appreciate in them. Caring friends take a lot of dedication and love to keep the relationship always warm. My friends often call me to ensure I’m doing fine. They accompany me for my endoscopy appointment every year. They take extra caution on my food intake whenever we go out to eat. There are many more things that they do for me. And, most importantly, they also like to use positive words to keep encouraging me. They’re say encouraging words such as “you can do it Sara”, “you must be strong” to motivate me so that I can keep moving on in my life. Their words give me more confidence and strength whenever I need it. Their words lead my thoughts and emotions to positive ways.
Friends provides a place for us to share and to discuss our feelings. In fact, friends are the best emotional medicine for people like us to overcome from depression and lift us up and encourage us to take a leap of faith to change our life into something better.