Friend (frend) n.

1. a person you know well and like a lot, but who is usually not a member of your family (www.cambridge.com)

2.  one attached to another by affection or esteem  (www.m-w.com)

3. A friend is a person on whom you can confidently rely to help pull you through the hard times, and hold you accountable for your actions. A friend is loyal, and a brother is born in a time of need. A friend will not judge you for who you are, but they will help you to grow in life. (www.wikipedia.org)

4.  somebody emotionally close: somebody who trusts and is fond of another
- acquaintance: somebody who thinks well of or is on good terms with somebody else
- ally: an ally, or somebody who is not an enemy
- advocate of cause: a defender or supporter of a cause, group, or principle
- patron: a patron of a charity (www.msn.com)

5.  Word History: A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin amcus “friend” and am “I love” is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos “friend” and phile “I love.” In English, though, we have to go back a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, frond, the Old English word for “friend,” was simply the present participle of the verb fron, “to love.” The Germanic root behind this verb is *fr-, which meant “to like, love, be friendly to.” Closely linked to these concepts is that of “peace,” and in fact Germanic made a noun from this root, *frithu-, meaning exactly that. Ultimately descended from this noun are the personal names Frederick, “peaceful ruler,” and Siegfried, “victory peace.” The root also shows up in the name of the Germanic deity Frigg, the goddess of love, who lives on today in the word Friday, “day of Frigg,” from an ancient translation of Latin Veneris dis, “day of Venus.” (www.freedictionary.com)

To everybody, there is something very sacred with friendships. Nobody could ever survive in this world without having at least one friend, even someone who just pretends to be a friend. It is my firmest belief that one cannot even exist if he/she believes that the whole world is out to get him/her.

Of course, there are some instances when you feel as if you are all alone in the world, and there is no one on your side. That, my friends, is called drama. Or emo, if you want it more pop culturesque. But in reality, once you have cleared yourself of the blinding web of your own insecurities, you will find that you are surrounded by people all willing to share your life.

Everywhere you go, people will drift in and out of your life. Sometimes with physical, deeply-felt impact, sometimes with barely a feather-lifting sigh. These people, these acquaintances, help us shape who we are by merely existing. Somehing to do with the interconnectedness of things, or the 6-degree rule. Either way, I’m pretty sure Brendon Urie doesn’t even know that a Denice on the other side of the globe from him wants to have babies with him, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t touched my life (oh, i do hope he would be able to touch it literally! haha).

But as usual, I digress. In the eternal swirling of souls in our daily lives, there are just few beings worthy enough to actually penetrate our personal bubbles and live in our hearts. These people, in my opinion, are the ones worth calling friends.

A lot of people define a friend to be someone who will be there to bail them out of a tight squeeze. I will be a hypocrite if I said that I didn’t think that. But somehow, as time passes, I learned to bestow the title to someone more worth it. For me, a friend is someone who trusts you enough to let you into their vulnerability.

Being too nice is a crime, as many people have told me. I have a nasty habit of being ignored because I give a lot of effort in relationships. Or pseudo-relationships for that matter. But being too nice has always been my default mode, and turning it off is actually a license that would send terror to the world. Like a 5′2″ gremlin when doused with water. So I always do nice, albeit sometimes crazy, things for people, because it was how I was brought up.  So it’s no guarantee for me that someone is a friend just because I help you. I may hate your very mitochondrion, for all you know, but I’d still do nice things for you, because it’s nice.

Juxtaposed to a title-bearing friend, the latter is someone who will let you in to the place where he/she fears to tread, and hope that you would still look at him/her the same way. A friend will touch you in a different way (not THAT way! You lecher.), in a way like a healing when you’re not the one whose bleeding.

These days I am very grateful for having a lot of people to call friends. Just having them compensate for the wrong things that happen in life. These people notice me when I am invisible, they herald me when I think I was the scum of the earth, they bring out the fighter when all I want is to cower and die.

These people make me live, when I try ceasing to exist.

~ by denice on 24 January, 2007.