Real Friends Never Grow Apart

            I spent 4 hours chatting with my best friend last night.  He’s 21 years old and chock full of 21 years worth of wisdom and life stories. One of the stories he told me really grabbed my attention. It was about the power of true friendship and why real friends always maintain a unique connection even in each other’s prolonged absence. The story went something like this…It started when I transfered in Angeles City, an urban community located on the outskirts of Pampanga, Philippines. In the 2000's it was a wholesome, quaint little community. It was my home and I loved it there, back then I thought I would never leave.  In my second year of college I met my best friend-to-be on the first day of school. With 50 students around me, the adversity crushed me to my soul and left me feeling paralyzed. I' m not an anti-social. It's hard to engage with the diversity. One person out-shined the entire class and it was James. We had a soul connection that ran extremely deep then eventually, we did end up as best friends. We used to collectively dream about raising a family of our own someday. We had it all planned out to live next door to one another.

Even though, a year after we walked in our separate ways our dream remained alive through the last school year, and even beyond. 

So, last year I decided to move to Ohio and I relocated.  James was sad to see me leave, but wished me the best of luck.  He and I remained in touch for a few months via periodic phone calls and Skype. After awhile we lost track of one another. Negative thoughts said hello to my brain thinking that he probably forget about my existence. My brain exeptionally convincing. Really! I thought of this several times over the months. Once, in the middle of October, I was browsing his Facebook page because I tried to determined his whereabouts, but my search turned up empty handed. A month passed and we never spoke. Then last month he clearly explains his silence. He's actively engaged in his studies to become a Doctor and I received a random message Wednesday afternoon. “Hello yum I miss you." It was James and the email went on. “It’s been so long.  We haven’t seen each other yet, but we have spent countless hours on the phone and computer catching up. The interesting thing is that even after a year of separation our personalities and interests are still extremely similar. We both share a passion for several hobbies that we each picked up independently several years after we lost touch with one another. It almost feels like we are picking up right where we left off, which is really strange considering the circumstances.

It’s so crazy, just looking at the photos reminds me of our journey; a reasonably happy, exhilarated adventure. Part of me feels like we led fairly similar lives.

I don’t think the numerous similarities between our two lives are a coincidence either. I think it shows that we didn’t just call each other best friends, we truly were best friends, and even now we can be best friends again. Real friends have 2 things in common: a compatible personality and a strong-willed character. The compatible personality is what initiates the connection between 2 people and a strong-willed character at both ends is what maintains the connection. If those 2 ingredients are present in a friendship, the friendship is for real, and can thus sustain the tests of time and prolonged absence without faltering.