FRIENDSHIP!!

ANNIVERSARY!!!

I began this cold, bright Thursday morning with a mood of celebration. This is because it is a special day for me and my best friend-Sila Joy Monthe: it was three years ago to this day, that our garland of friendship was first watered. It’s our third anniversary!!! Trust me when I say Monthe, who I’ll preferably refer to as Sunshine, is oblivious of this. And in case she knew it yesterday, she’s probably forgotten about it. That’s just her-gold fish memory. But despite all her ginormous shortcomings, I still love her!!

For most of the time, we have been living comfortably-mainly happily given our almost similar attitudes towards life. I’m not trying to say we’ve not had our share of up and downs. We’ve had them, several in fact!! The friendship almost came to an end while I was in high school but seriously we had come such a long way to just let everything fall apart. The circumstances around me were just making it hard for her to trust me as she used to. I was hurt too and didn’t know where to place her-frenemy or friend? But I understood it all, sat with her and sorted our issues. Now we’re still going strong-thank God.

Both of us are into poetry, Russian politics and philosophy. We’re also avid readers. But while I do the criticizing, she does the analyzing. Now this is what friendship is all about-filling each other’s weaknesses with our strengths and together working on them for the better. Thanks to Sunshine, am less of a critic and now good at weighing options before I make my decisions. I’ve also learnt to trust my ideas however crazy they might seem. What would I ever do without her? For pete’s sake she even tells me what to wear to a date! Look, she’s my beautician, nutritionist, financial adviser, psychotherapist, love, mum, you name it! She keeps my sanity on check.  And boy oh boy ain’t I lucky!

We are what the Russians would call entuziasts-ladies with a mission in life, with the physical energy to carry it out and the mental determination to see it through. Not obsessive, but not far from it either. Whenever we have the bit between our teeth, we never let go. We never take chances with our lives. We live life to the fullest. We also never spare each other. She doesn’t just sit back and watch me make a stupid decision.

Friendships can be volatile and valuable all at the same time. They can blow up right on our faces and we would do nothing about them. They make us feel loved, valuable and for that matter human. These are some of the small miracles in our lives that we should constantly be grateful for. While the friendship lasts, make your friends know what they mean to you. Have a friendly day, won’t you?