Friends come and go from our lives, it is just what happens. People naturally grow apart or recognize differences that just can’t be overcome. There can be times in which a friendship ends poorly, but that’s okay. I have always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Therefore, there will be people that come and go from your life, teaching you valuable lessons along the way. However, there are some people who come into your life that make you feel so blessed to have met.

When those certain somebodies come into your life, they teach you some of the most basic, yet easily forgotten life lessons. The first one being respect. In order to have a long lasting, relationship with anyone, let alone your best friend, there absolutely needs to be mutual respect. Once there is mutual respect between people, it opens the door for more meaningful and memorable conversations. Respect allows people to open up to one another about personal struggles without the fear of any judgement.

The establishment of respect leads right into the ground work for trust. Without trust between friends, the relationship will always remain surface level. It will never delve any deeper than meaningless talks about a class or the weather. Once you feel comfortable with someone, it allows you to be able to start supporting one another and truly being there for each other.

Respect and trust are basic pillars of a long lasting friendship. However, I believe the most important ingredient in a friendship is honesty. Our true friends are there for our highs and lows. They support us when we make a poor decision and celebrate us when we have our successes. I think it is also important at times to be brutally honest with one another. The role of our friends is to support us through thick and thin. However, it is also important that they voice their opinions.

To me, when a friend voices his or her opinion it means that they care. When they give advice it doesn’t meant that they expect you to follow what they are saying. We are all different people, we have different personalities and different life experiences that make us unique. All these different factors lead us to having a certain point of view; therefore, it is nice and helpful to have a friend who isn’t scared to be honest and tell you when they think there is another way to handle a situation. Just because a friend may think you could handle a conflict or decision differently, does not diminish his or her support of you, nor does it mean that they judge your actions. At the end of the day, your true friends just want you to be happy and content with your life.

So in a way this is a thank you to my friends who’ve stuck by my side through mistakes and triumphs, who have been respectful and trustworthy and who haven’t been afraid to give advice that may contradict my thinking.