4 April 2013

Where The Happiness Begins or The True Friendship




"You should see my favourite people;
You catch a glimpse of gold through their skins.
I walk on air whenever I'm with them; They're where the happiness begins.
And I'm alright on my own, but with them I'm much better.
They're like diamonds and diamonds are forever." - BOY, Army

There a people in everyone's life who make it better; who make you feel safe and warm. All they have to do is turn up, be there and suddenly the world is ok. Plain and simple. 

Friends have always played an important part in my life. There are few things that are more important to me than my close friends, the people I care about as much as my family. Some of them I even consider to be my family. 

I am lucky enough to have 3 people in my life who makes me feel safe, who I can rely on in times of need and who makes all my troubles, and worries seem far, far away. Who will give me an honest opinion, a reality check, while drying tears; who will laugh with me or at me when I am being silly. 

One of them, it turns out, is more like the sister I never had, while the other is my opposite. The third in the bunch is like the protective brother ever girl should have. Without them my life wouldn't quite be the same. 


N. and I met in our first year at University, group project. It was a rainy, grey day and I got her name wrong the first time I have to address after having introduced ourselves. She was so cool and I was in awe. There was no way she would ever be friends with me. 

We ended up working as a team because the others in our group thought she was a little intimidating and I volunteered. Turns out, she thought the same thing about me when we first met. We quickly became friends and have been ever since that first day. She is everything I sometimes wish I could be We can spend hours in silence with each other because we know what the other one is thinking anyway. Simply enjoy each other’s company. 

U.’s and my story is very different. Like many great loves of our time we met, hold your breath, on the Internet. A mutual friend thought we would get on well and passed on our emails to each other. Neither of us speak to him anymore; however, I will be forever grateful to him for introducing us.

Chatting quickly lead to phone calls and then a ‘blind date.’ What was meant to be a coffee turned into a 5 hour conversation and despite the fact that we spend most of our friendship apart, despite our ups and downs, we have been friends ever since. We are incredibly different, yet it’s these differences that make us such a strong team.

“They stand taller than giants,

They outshine all the stars,

They are the love above the love
They're my army of fortune,
They win every war
…”

J. and I met at work. He was trouble from the get-go, but that is exactly why I love him so much. We used to get shouted at for speaking English at work (“We are in Germany, in a German company, and we speak German!”), spend hours counting our cups and saucers (double and triple checking because we were too busy chatting), having quite explicit dinner conversations and him playing angry birds for me so I can progress to a higher level.

He will give me the reality check that I need on a regular basis, will predict the future in many respects, yet still let me whine when things go just like he predicted. He is the sort of friend that everyone needs in his or her life, really. He has told me to stay away from certain people, once again proving his role of protective ‘brother’.

But before this turns into a love letter to my friends, those 3 in particular, I shall stop myself. I cannot help but wonder whether everyone is lucky enough to have people in their life that make them feel they way these 3 do. Its difficult to describe how much these three mean to me.

To imagine my life without them seems impossible. If, for some reason or another, there should come a point where they seize to be part of my life it will surely be heart breaking. To lose a friend is one thing, to lose a best friend is another. We all have lost a best friend at some point, I am sure, and it something that is hard to recover from.

True friendship is something that is hard to come by these days. There are too many people who pretend, who do not understand what it means to be a friend. Too many people we are forced to be nice and polite too, maybe even pretend to be friends with for the sake of peace within our social group. Sometimes it feels almost like to true friendship is not valued enough anymore.


I love the fact that there are people who I can be myself around, completely. Around whom I can be as silly as I want to, who won’t judge me no matter what, who I can tell my deepest, darkest secrets too. They are the sort of people I will share my last cookie with, maybe even share my beloved Lindt bunnies. With whom I can enter into the little bubble of happiness. Or to borrow, BOY’s word, “where the happiness begins.”