Let me tell you something about friendship..

It's hard to know who your real friends are.

Throughout life you meet people. Some of those people you get along with and some you do not.. either way they all contribute to your life for better or worse and shape your memories whether you like it or not.

Just don't focus on those that do harm.

Take things as they come, learn from people even if the lesson hurt you, but don't make the same mistakes twice.

Let me tell you something about friendship..

Friendship is a term used loosely, and it seems our modern culture has lost the desire or perhaps ability to discern between friends and mere acquaintances.

From the past near thirty years of being social and active in public, meeting not just a few select groups of people but mingling with dozens of various social groups that don't even mix, I've found many different people enter my life and only a few I can really call my friend.

Most people that I know, and that you know, are mere acquaintances.. but that's FINE.

Trouble usually comes about when you meet someone and introduce them to your 'friends' and inadvertantly point at a few select people in the room the new person then assumes knows everything about you..

That new person then goes around, talks one on one to your 'friends' but really.. some of them were just acquaintances, and don't REALLY know you that well at all.

So here is someone you just met talking to someone that barely knows you and just assumes everything that person is telling them about you is true..

I think you can imagine where troubles may arise. False thoughts about you are shared. Things spread..

Let's take it another route.. true 'friends' aren't those people that just post 'happy birthday' on your Facebook wall once a year.. they're not just people that say hello to you in public, go out in groups with you and laugh at your jokes.. the person that fits that bill could be ANYONE that is social that you have even just met, and could know nothing about who you really are and still fit that place in your life. That's not a friend.. let's bring back the term 'acquaintance' and separate out what makes someone your friend.

Friends don't just talk to you during the good times, but also the bad times. They don't ignore you when times are tough and instead reach out to you even when they sense something is wrong. They care about YOU and it shows.. they want to help you through life and not just use you for something.. that something can be as simple as someone to share a laugh with in groups, have sex with, or to access things you have ability to help them with.. be it car help, computer help, car rides around town, or anything else you can give them or help them with.. you'll know these people because they'll KEEP asking for that thing you can give them over and over.. but bail when you need them for something. I'm sure you can relate.

My advise after decades of experience is to beware people that use you for something under the guise of friendship.

You'll know your true friends because they will be around and there for you needing and wanting nothing in return.. they'll be there for the bad times not just show up for the good times..

Friends don't ignore your texts and phone calls. They don't try to avoid you when they know you're going through tough times. They don't smile at you then talk behind your back. Friends are hard to come by, those that really care, want to see the best for you, and aren't using you for anything at all.

Sometimes it takes a rainy day to see who comes to help dry you off, and until then it's hard to tell.

Friendship is rare.