What kind of friend are you?

What kind of friend are you?

I have been wondering lately what kind of friend I am.This struck me recently when I was trying to classify my own friends into categories. I came up with several.

The convenient friend

The long time friend

The facebook friend

The friend because we have kids the same age

The our husband work together friend

And…..the true friend.

Dictionary.com come defines the word friend as: a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

Wikipedia defines friendship as a cooperative and supportive relationship between people.

What is your definition of friendship? I definitely think that we all define it a bit differently. I would define them this way:

The convenient friend: The friend that you occasionally see, possibly to go to dinner or coffee with, chat and make small talk, but only when it is convenient for both parties.You would probably never drop what you are doing to see this person, and would probably not keep up with them if you moved away.

The long time friend: The friend that you’ve had since childhood. The friend who knows every secret and quirk about you. This is the friend that you see when you go home for the holidays, your parents all know each other, and helped raise you. This friend helped mold you into the person you are today.

The facebook friend: We all have them. These are the people we act like we are best friends with, but would probably not relate in a real life circumstance. These are people from our past, present, and future. We have good conversation, but would never count on each other for much of anything.

The friend because we have kids the same age: These are friends that we meet during play groups or outing and hang out with occasionally exchanging stories and parenting tips. These are not really friends who would count on each other. They are similar to a convenient friend.

The our husbands work together friend: You made this friend due to the fact that your husband/wife works with them or their spouse. The can be great friends. They can fall into many categories, but a lot of them are friends only at work functions, and you have no contact with them otherwise.

And..the true friend: This is someone who you can count on no matter what. They counsel you, guide you, pray for you, drop everything for you. This friendship is similar to a relationship you have with a family member.

So…which one of these friends are you? All of them? I am.It is not important to have relationships as deep as a true friend with every person you meet. It does not make you a bad person to put more energy into certain relationships than others.

Because we move around, I feel as though I need to make at least one or two true friends to act as my “family” away from real family. I feel as though I need to invest all of this time and effort into new friendships. It is interesting to see the dynamics of these relationships unfold. It is much easier to look back at my friendship in Albuquerque and DC, and place all of those people into a certain category.However, when you are in the thick of things in a place, you aren’t quite sure where these people will fall. Maybe they will stay a convenient friend, maybe you will be true friends by the time you move away, maybe some new friends feel like people you have known all your life, but life circumstances get in the way and you will not be friends by the time you leave.

I want to say thank you to all of my friends…whether you be convenient, facebook, work, true friend or some mold of them all. You all, in some manner, got us here today.Everyone needs a friend. Whose friend will you be today?

**I am sorry if everyone didn't make it, but all of our pictures are still on the old computer, and I had to steal some of these off facebook!!