What Makes a True Friend?

David Peralty asks the question “What makes a true friend?” and I started to comment there, but then I realized my answer was bigger than a comment.

This is something I’ve seriously explored over the last 18 months or so, mostly because I thought I knew who my true friends were time and time again and was more than often surprised by the truth.

So, here goes…

• A true friend is someone who cares about you even though you haven’t spoken in years due to a dramatic rift.
• A true friend makes time for you in your time of need, no matter what’s going on in their own life.
• A true friend sticks with you through the happy or the sad.
• A true friend goes out of their way to make you feel better when you’re down.
• A true friend helps you pack and move…multiple times.
• A true friend helps you unpack…or at least keeps you company.
• A true friend calls you just to say hi even after you’ve moved 1700 miles away.
• A true friend remembers your birthday, even if it’s the wrong day.
• A true friend gives as much as they take, even if the balance isn’t always equal — sometimes it’s more give and sometimes it’s more take.
• A true friend will talk politics with you without getting angry if you don’t agree.
• A true friend respects your opinion even when you don’t agree.

Most importantly, a true friend isn’t always a true friend…sometimes people are truer than other times. Some people drift in and out of your life and sometimes they surprise you and sometimes they disappoint you and sometimes they’re everything you’ve come to expect.

People change as life goes on. They grow together and apart with many people. Some people become a ghost you wonder about from time to time and some are the ones you pick up the phone and call just for the heck of it despite not speaking in months.

tags: friendship

2 comments

1. on August 3, 2005 at 1:57 pm

   David said:

   Wow…nice “comment”/post.

   A true friend respects your opinion even when you don’t agree.

2. on November 15, 2006 at 9:05 pm

   Emily said:

   Thanks so much for the advise. I really apperishiate. It helps relise what kind of friends I have and what a better friends I can be. Thanks again.

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