Friendship Roadmap: Navigating the Terrain of Relationships

Life is usually likened to a school, where we go through a lot of experience that teaches us lessons that help us navigate life better as individuals, and when we reminisce about the past, one thing that usually comes to mind is what advice would have come in handy and be valuable had we gotten it at a younger age. On one of the many aspects this is required, the area of friendship stands tall, and that's because it's a journey filled with twists and turns where we meet people with different upbringings, ideologies, and the like. In this article, I'll be sharing some principles I think would have come in handy for me personally as a 20-year-old to navigate complex friendship terrain, and I hope someone coming up will find this valuable.

Although I'm not the type of person who has a large circle of friends, in fact my friends circled are so compact and minimal to the point where I can arguably tell you I know all the birthdays of my friends circled of hands, but regardless of how few I've got, there are still some encounters and experiences I had in the journey of life in friendship, and this taught me some valuable lessons. In some, I regretted my actions that made me lose real friends, and in others, I wished I had someone to give me advice on things I later learned the hard way, and maybe I wouldn't have fallen into some ditches and traps some friendship got me into.

But then overall, given all of those experiences and lessons learned, I've come up with these few pieces of value advice that I believe would have come in handy for me when I was much younger in helping me deal with things related to friends, and I know this can as well come in handy from young boys and girls out there who've had little or no life experience regarding friendship. Well, without further ado, let's dive into it.

PRIOTIZE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY: Being an introvert growing up, at a point I felt lonely and bored watching everyone around me mingle and get acquainted with one another, and this forced me to take a drastic decision to change that narrative. If you had something in mind already, yes, you're right; I did exactly what you're thinking. I tried to dig out the inner extroverts in me, gathering loads of friends regardless of their backgrounds, intellectual capacity, and ideology, and while this helps me curb the immediate effect of boredom, it still introduced me to some bad acts I wouldn't have adopted had I not chosen quantity of friends over quality.

But as I grow, I've come to realize that it's not how much but how well; quantity is just a number that can't save us in the time of trial, and I get to understand that we should surround ourselves with circles of friends that are built on trust, mutual respect, and shared ideology and values; with this, they would go on to help, sustain, and stand by us during the constant ups and downs of life, and because they're built on unwavering love, respect, mutual understanding, and support, I really wish I had someone to tell me this, and maybe I wouldn't have made some mistakes in that aspect.

EMBRACE GROWTH AND CHANGE: As a young man, one thing I fail to understand due to the absence of someone to advise me is the idea that individuals tend to grow and evolve over time as they gain experience and move around life. There are tendencies to have a change of perspective about stands that can either deepen or crumble friendship, and as all of this plays out, we need to understand that it's part of life and not hold on to the past for long, because doing that would literally make one stagnant while those who, due to them we're in such a ditch will move on with their lives.

I met a lady several years ago, and we ended up dating for the next 5 years. It was almost obvious we'd spend forever together because preparations for the wedding were already underway, and one thing led to another that made us break up. Yes, I was hurt, but rather than moving on, I held on to the past, being so afraid of falling in love to the point where I ended up going 5 years after the breakup, running away from anything that has to do with love and relationships.

Now, did this help? Yes, in a way, I keep lying to myself that it did help, but deep down I know it doesn't, and I should have moved on a long time ago. Now I know I probably was so sure of things going as planned and the fact that I had already taken loads of steps towards our being together forever, and that crumbling literarily broke me, but if I were to meet my younger self, I'd let him understand that such is life; shit happens, people grow up, and priorities change, but don't let that hold you down to a spot, instead pick up the pieces of yourself and move on with life, and this doesn't necessarily peg to love alone but in friendship and other related interactions that bring about disappointment in life.

Like I said earlier, handling friendship is critical and shouldn't be taken lightly because it's a journey filled with twists and turns, but I can say for a fact that had my younger self been opened and equipped to these principles and knowledge back then, then it would have been easy for me to navigate different grounds and probably even had a better life because friendship can go a long way in impacting our lives and future positives if it's had with the right set of individuals.

In conclusion, as a young man or woman out there, above is my advice to you from someone who has been into the future you're anticipating: read through, digest, and implement it into your life. Learn as you grow, not forgetting to cherish and appreciate every bond you have, because true friendship is one of the best gifts anyone can ever have because it tends to enrich the tapestry of our lives.

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That's all my advice to my younger self and the young people out there who are about to explore the terrain of friendship. I hope they find this valuable. Thanks so much for your time, and stay blessed.

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