Everyone needs a friend. Some are lucky to have many genuine friends while others have just a handful. Apart from having someone to share our good times with, our craziness with and sorrows, friends play so many significant roles in our lives and are responsible for a huge chunk of the outlook that we have towards various things that we see in life. Given this pivotal role friends play in our lives, therefore, it is safe to say that it is not just enough to have friends but good friends are indispensable after all they say, “ Show me your friends and I will show you who you are.”
Childhood friends top the list of some of these friendship bonds that should not be broken for the following reasons:
a) You need no explanations around them
Childhood friends are basically lifelong friends. If you were lucky enough to build a good bond with one or several, please hold on to it. With this group of friends you are complete as you are and they already know why you have that mark on your neck or why you never allow your hair to grow past a half an inch.
b) They understand your fascinations, temperaments and madness
Have you ever been with a friend and then you play Sarafina on your video player and they wonder why you did not watch it as a child? Here is the explanation. That friend is most probably not a childhood friend because s/he does not know that you have watched Sarafina over 500 times, can repeat the actors sentences word for word, can sing the Zulu songs and that, even you do not know why you keep going back to that movie. Your childhood friend(s) know that Sarafina is the soundtrack of your life and when your Sarafina watching demons land, they will get busy elsewhere.
c) You are sure of who they are
Because of the benefit of time, you know your childhood friends like the palm of your hands. When you get to that point where you are thinking of treating a friend for her birthday or surprising her at work, you know exactly who to bother not surprising because they are never where they say they are and you also know what gifts are likely to backfire on you.
d) You have learnt to survive being apart
Remember when you were taken to a boarding school in primary seven and she remained in the school you had both been previously and she would gist you about everything that happened in the neighbourhood during school holidays? That prepared you for the reality that is life: one of you now has a job in Ougodougou and the other one is working in Gaborone but I think the past life has already prepared you with the skills of growing separately without growing apart. This is unlike with friends whom you meet and cultivate a friendship based only on the advantage of proximity and familiarity whose bond is likely to get shaken as soon as one of you in transferred from Nairobi to Mombasa.
e) You became friends when you were truly who you are
By the time you became friends, you were not aware of concepts of “first impressions” so you did not feel the need to furnish surfaces. Coupled with your childhood innocence, you were simply who you are and the bond of friendship was cultivated on a sure foundation. There is also the benefit of your childhood being painted in the same colors and because of this; you carry pieces of your childhood in your childhood friend. A consolation of sorts…
