What is genuine friendship?

As sad as it may sound, not everyone that comes into our lives have the intention of staying. Everyone that crosses our paths will always be for a reason and it is up to us to figure that out. Throughout my existence and my very little effort into making friends, I found out that it is not a matter of how long you have known the person but its how your hearts understood one another. You may have known someone for so long and still not be able to connect with them and that is okay. There's nothing wrong with you or the other person. We are not all made to like one another or to accept one another, that is not something we can push down on each others throat.

There are those people that has been in our lives for a very short amount of time and still, they could mean the world to us. Such friendship does exists and it is not bound by the amount of time you knew the person.

I've had a friend in High School whom I spent very little time with but the things we've learned from one another is something that has carried me to becoming the person I am today. He was a senior, I was a junior at the time. I've seen him play badminton and our study pattern was almost identical. I do remember seeing him everywhere around the campus but never quite paid attention to him.

Our little talk started when I was doing an essay alone in the library during my study period and he was sitting on the computer next to mine. He had to head off somewhere and he kindly asked me to look after his stuff while he was away. From then on, our friendship began. We live quite close to each other so walking home together became almost a daily thing for us. We still have our own circle of friends of course so we see each other when time permits.

We studied more often together and played badminton for a club on some nights. Our friendship grew and we became almost inseparable. I am aware that after his High School study, he will be going back to his home country for his national service and that made me uneasy whether I should continue being friends with him or not. The thought of losing a good friend like him hurts like hell, but I did my very best to prepare myself for when the time has come.

Back then, we were so close that people thought that we were together. I'd have to be honest and say that I did fell a little for him but we both knew it is not possible. He's a Muslim and I am a Roman Catholic. Still, we didn't let our differences run our lives, instead, we took our time to learn about one another's culture and religion. My friendship with him helped me to become more open and respectful to other religion and he taught me how to stood up for what I truly believe in. Despite the negative comments pooling around us, it never did quite stop us from being friends but we were surely uneasy but I suppose because our intentions were pure, it didn't bother us for long.

He taught me their prayers and I introduced him to ours. Our friendship garnered so many negative comments most especially from those people we were so close to. It is only then that I realised, I can never make them happy and I should not even try. Some friends thought that he's brain washing me and so on but what do you really expect from narrow minded people? Muslim's have received so much criticism all over the world for something that they are not in control of eg. terrorism, discrimination against women. I would not even want to go through each and every hurtful criticism I have heard from friends only because I still have respect for them.

I have met my friend's family and they have been nothing but lovely to me. Treated me with pure respect as any person deserves. Through it all, our friendship stood strong even when we had to part. We then promised that we will set a time in the future where we can have our most wanted reunion, we said 2016 but it did not happen as planned. But we did see each other the year after, yes, this year and still, nothing has changed. He toured us around the best shopping places in Singapore and still we had a good laugh just like before and he also got the chance to meet my boyfriend. We both have our own love of our lives and we couldn't be any happier for one another.

I am forever grateful for the kind of friendship I found in him and life lessons that came with it. No matter the length of time I spent with this friend of mine, it didn't matter because I have life lessons to bring with me into the future that would always remind me of him. Of how the power of genuine friendship is truly valuable when both of you speaks from your heart and genuine to one another.

We may be countries apart but our friendship still stood as a great reminder to me that God is not a judgmental God. He does not discriminate and he does not persecute those who are different.

I am forever grateful that he gave me the opportunity to have found a friendship like no other. Through this friendship, I was able to open my eyes to the view of different religions and to be respectful of each and everyone of them. Through this friendship, I learned how important it is to believe in yourself and in your faith. People may have put our friendship down but our God will never, because God given genuine friendship knows no religion, colour or race.