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Letters In a Glass Bottle V

Making Great Friendships

Son,

You must have heard me repeatedly say that nothing beats family and friends, not even the houses and the cars. Friends are the family you have the opportunity of choosing for yourself they say. And your friends can make or mar your life for you. Lemme be honest with you, we can not be friends with everyone, however we can be friendly and polite to all. We should not even keep enemies as Christians.

Sometimes it happens that you discover that some friendships are not in your best interest, what do you do? You step it down. There are close friends, there are buddies, there's friends and then the least - acquaintances. So if a friend is having negative fx (effects) on you, you keep your distance and then push the friendships to acquaintance level perhaps. Don't make enemies of people who were once close to you. If things get to the worst you should still be on polite speaking terms. You get?

You're probably going to make many friends from primary school, one or two will be a friend for life. Likewise friends from secondary school. The friends from the University are the ones who'll help you start up life on your own. The thing is the friendships made in young adulthood last very long. The more experiences you have together the stronger the friendship.

So great friends will tell you the truth (as it is), encourage you to be a better person, push you to make a move and will have your back. Generally, they are all out for your long-term success. The type of friends you should stay away from usually have no long term ambitions, and don't care about yours. They are usually stuck with bad habits and would want you to join in too.

Most of the things I achieved I achieved with the help and connections of my friends. Have dreams and pursue them with your friends while you're young, and make an adventure of it.

This is a toast to those who became your uncles and aunts through friendships.

PS A girl can fit perfectly as a 'friend' in all the scenarios I described here.

PPS It's not that complicated. Wait, It's quite complicated but actually not quite.

Hope you're learning?

Your Dad.

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