Friendship is one of those things we learn very early and easy in life. Being social human beings, we automatically want to be able to associate ourselves with people on a regular basis.

As we grow older, we begin to see that it’s beyond ‘sharing your lunch with me’, or ‘holding my hand as we walk together’ that qualify you to be my friend. Becomes more of what values we share that are similar and how we can impact each others lives for the better?

I had a random question from someone this week and it brought me to a place where I started to question first of all if I have a friendship criteria and then if really it was necessary.

He asked me what my personal principles were on building and relating with friends. Obviously that completely caught me off-guard because its not everyday we meet people who actually want to know what being friends with you entail.

Obviously, I had a quick think and put together some of my personal values which I would also appreciate if the other party had. But later on, I had a deeper think about the question and I realised how crucial it was for individuals to have principles that reach deep into their lives, even influencing the people we choose to call friends.

It also made me realise how much different ‘friend’ is from ‘acquaintance’. They actually only intersect at the point that you know them. From there it’s two different ways.

Asides that, because of where we are as a society, I think it is utmost wisdom to have a friendship criteria which really is a sort of checklist when he comes to choosing who you do this life with.

The after effects of that question brought me to evaluating the people I call friends and seeing if truly we  were better together than apart which is determined on the kind of impact we have on each others life.

Friendship is golden. I have some beautiful souls to thank for actually being able to say this because I know not everyone of us have had the best friendship experiences. It’s one of those things that’ll always exist and it’s only right that we get it right.