Friends

When I was two, I made my first friend. At the age of nine, I found a real friend. At 13, I met my best friend. While 17, I met my other best friend. During my 18th year, I had my first actual girlfriend. On my 21st birthday, I lost a true friend.

Over the years I've had my experiences, as we all have, with friendship. Friendships have developed which lasted for a day, and others have developed that will surely be for life. Our lives are irrevocably altered by the friends we let in them, so I decided to take a break from the usually writing to denote a little thank you for those we call friends.

If there is anything I've truly learned from my months here in London, and especially the last three weeks around continental Europe, it's that our lives are wonderfully enhanced by the people in them. At the same time, a life can be inhibited, degraded and destroyed by those we call friends, so it's especially important to acknowledge the times when the uplifting occurs.

So, in accordance with my initial proposal, I would like to take a few sentences to say, "Thank you," to those who I call my friends.

As I said, a friend can really make one strive to lift up his/her life a little. In the past months I've had ample amounts of time to think about the various friends I have/had, and the conclusion I've come down to is this: there are no limitations on true friendship. Distance doesn't degrade them, nor does age wear on one. Time doesn't decay them, nor new friendships replace one. But, perhaps the most important aspect, is that no words can describe them, no algorithm define one, no picture display it, nor any voice perfectly say it. So while friendship may be a social phenomenon, it definitely is all around us. Ralph Waldo Emerson said "The only way to have a friend is to be one." So, to all those who have been my friends, that in itself has been a tremendous thing, and I deeply, sincerely, permanently thank you for that, and I hope that I have been/will continue to be one to you.