Friend is the Family You Choose

Recently, a guy moaned about how our class mailing list seems to be lacking “warmth”. People seem to be more interested in posting forwarded e-mails or job ads rather than sending encouraging words or their own life-inspiring stories. People have their own reasons for doing so, like being so busy with their new life that they don’t have the time to write anything original, being contented enough by being passive member of the list, and so forth.

For me, and many others I suspect, the reason was plain enough: writing about my hopes and fears on the list just feels uncomfortable. Actually, I’m not the type of person who’s contented enough by keeping her own thoughts for herself. I don’t share them with just anybody, though. I only share them with my closest people: friends and families. Or to say it in other words, which would make me sound like a cold-hearted b****rd I’m sure, I only perceive most people on that list (my classmates) as acquaintance--snot friends. At least not “friends” in its’ truest sense of word.

Friends are basically the people you feel comfortable with. There cannot be a more adequate way to say it than the above phrase: “friend is the family you choose”. When you’re with family, you don’t hold back (at least that’s what it’s like in my family). You can say and do things (well, most of the things) freely without being afraid of making fun of yourself. And when you do make fun of yourself, you could care less because you know your family wouldn’t make a big deal of it (except at times, when they use those embarrassing moments as memento for their own personal pleasure :D).

In other words, your family should’ve known who you really are. So, there’s no point in restraining yourself against them. Being with your friends is exactly like that. After all, the only difference between friend and family is that you get to choose your friends, but not your family.

In the end of the day, it really can’t be helped, though. Some people treat everybody they know as “friends”, not just “acquaintances”. I’ll have to accept that I’m not that kind of person. Sorry for not being THAT friendly.