To Have A Friend Is To Have A Treasure

Araceli Munoz

Friendship is an important element of our social relations and our social environment. People usually find friends within the context that they move. In their school, in their neighbourhood, in their job, while traveling, on the Internet ... it’s possible to find friends everywhere.

In my case, I have made good friends at every time and in all places of my life. My friends mark the different phases though which I have passed during my life. I still keep in touch with some of my friends but others only remain for a while in my life and afterwards they only rest in my memory.

Many times, we fall out of touch when we lose some common thing that we shared with our friend: a place, a hobby, other friends … Sometimes time or distance doesn’t make it easy to keep our friendships, but, even so, some relations remain. We lose other friends forever. And some ones seem lost but we return to get in touch again after some time.

During my life I have learnt that being able to keep our good and old friends is sometimes more important than finding new ones. It can be easy to find new friends but keeping the friends that you already have is much more difficult. Maybe, if you want to keep your friends, the most important thing is allocating time for them.

But, what do we expect out of a friendship? Perhaps, we look for confidence, respect, sincerity, reciprocity, understanding or support, someone who will be with you when you need him and whom you will help when he calls for you. Or, maybe, we only try to find affection or companionship: somebody with whom we can speak about our problems, happiness or sadness and who listens to you both when you are right and when you are wrong. Or simply, we need to have friends in order to be happy and to enjoy good times, because, like the saying tells us “to have a friend is to have a treasure”.

However, we don’t expect the same things from all our friends. Not all friends have the same importance to us and we are not fond of each one in the same way. There are good, close and essential friends and there are more superficial relationships. And, sincerely, I believe that the former are the most important to keep.