Friends- The Most Important Thing We Have

It has always been my belief that there is one thing in life that you just can't put a price tag on.
Friends.

Not acquiantances, or work colleauges, or drinking buddies.
The real type. The ones who will be there, no matter how your life changes, or theirs does.

The friendships that are more than just short term alliances, based on current circumstances.
The friendships that are based on the fact that you always will be, deep down, kindred spirits. People who see the world the same way and want the same things from life.

I think these sorts of friends are rare. In fact I'd go further- a lot of people don't really have friends of this type, and that's a shame really.
Because if you have friends like this, you don't need much else.

In this, I guess, I'm lucky. I've posted before on two of the three closest people to me, but oddly, not on the one who's probably closest of the lot.

I have known The Baker for ten years- we met at University. We had a lot in common- both closer to a surviving grandparent, than our parents, both people who had a 'try everything once, you only live once' outlook.
Over our time as students we discovered ourselves, but only because we mutually supported eachother on that journey.



In some sense, embracing life to the full, can be dangerous. Releasing yourself from the framework of acquired societal morals is a bit like playing Russian Roulette.
But in doing so, you actually learn through your mistakes. You learn through experience what the REAL rights and wrongs are, because you learned the hard way.

Looking back, some of the things we did then, were downright stupid and irresponsible.
But I don't regret any of it.

The amusing thing was, there two schools of thought.
One school of thought (incuding The Baker's grandfather) was that I was a terrible influence on The Baker, that otherwise he'd be a sensible, moderate hard working student.
The other school (including my grandmother) reversed those roles.

The reality of course, was that we encouraged eachother. We would carry on, where others would stop. We continuously pushed the boundaries, wanting to see what lay beyond.

Of course, we were young and naive then.

Over the years, we have moved on from the complete recklessness that characterised the pair of us at that age.
Both of us have developed our own sense of right and wrong, and life in the real world has taught us some sense.

But our shared experience of life, our similarities in outlook have meant that we have reached the closing years of our twenties with a closeness that is, perhaps, uncommon.

We can talk to eachother about things that most people would not talk to their partners about.
The discussions we have are all the more valuable, because they descend from ten years worth of conversation- there's so much that doesn't need to be said, because it's already been said.
I don't think there's anything that has appeared in any of my posts, which I haven't already debated with The Baker.

We live a hundred miles apart, but still spend on average, two weekends a month in eachother's company. It's the sort of friendship that is so close, that people often jump to the wrong conclusions about it.



I guess we can never really say we understand anyone apart from ourselves, because we have all followed different life paths and are all composed in slightly different ways.
But when we have people who know our opinions before asking, who know what we want before we ask it, who never think ill of us, no matter what we do, because they know us well enough to be able to understand us even we are wrong, we have something precious.

Precious, because if you don't have anyone you can be totally yourself with, someone you can actually discuss your darkest fears with, you can never know yourself, or value yourself.

Friends really are priceless.