Friendship is super important to me, but being a good friend to others is even more important to me. Growing up, it became clear to me that everybody has a different definition of what being a good friend is.
Some people need you to be talking to them every single day, while others are fine with just catching up after every couple of months. Some people have lifelong best friends, while others define a best friend as someone who they've been spending the most time with recently.
Some people want their friends to always make them feel better and some just want to hear what they need to hear. In my own experience, I've decided to be the friend who always tells the truth.
The truth is sometimes hard to handle, can hurt, and may not be what you want to hear, but it is always what you need to hear. The way I see it, truth equals respect. Everybody deserves honesty and if you aren't able to give somebody that kind of respect, you can't expect it in return.
As a friend, I'm not going to sugarcoat things. If you messed up, I will tell you. I will explain what you did wrong but I will also help you to be better. I understand that people make mistakes, and I don't think it is fair to judge somebody off of their mistakes, especially if they make the effort to fix them, or at least to do better next time. Friends are there to help you do just that.
Friends, just like any other kind of relationship, should make you a better person. They should feed your potential, not get in the way of it.
I will never apologize to someone for being honest with them. Like I said, the truth sometimes hurts but that's life. Nothing in life worth having comes easy, you have to work for it. To grow as a person, you need to know what previously went wrong and turn that around.
If I, as your friend, went around validating everything you do, even when something isn't right, I wouldn't be helping you grow and become a better person, which ultimately is the goal of any kind of relationship.
