Friends

This post ironically talks about people who aren't actually one's friend. Unlike many others who openly regards everyone as their friend, I however, regard most people as an acquaintance. (Secretly, at the very least) Although it makes me appear as an anti-social individual, believe me, it's not that far off from the former. 

I believe that regarding everyone as a friend is not very much more sociable than being open to friendship.

We often overgeneralise what it means to be a friend. Some people does it with simply no agenda to it, but at other times for our darker agenda. Here's a few very common examples.

1. There are people who seek the approval of others (Probably of a higher status) by appearing to be friendly with the peers around them.
2. There are also those who seek to associate themselves with you just so as to keep an on your actions and progress before surpassing you when ever you falter.

Yet these people may be those who resent or scorn you the most.

What about those are related to you in school or at work, and simply address you as a friend for that reason and with no agenda at all? Perhaps it certainly didn't matter if we reciprocated their actions. Most of the time.

During a recent match (DOTA 2) a classmate of mine was taunted relentlessly by his ex-schoolmate whenever he makes a blunder. His schoolmate had been performing far below his usual abilities. Before long his taunts which bordered on insult, pushed my classmate over the edge they ended the day with a flurry of verbal assaults on each other out of frustration.  Yet, ironically, both of them, (including me) were on the same team. I cannot help but think that the schoolmate's actions were prompted by jealously as any another gamer would very much experience. His choice of words surely suggested so.

Certainly, nobody can be a perfect friend, nobody can have magnanimity to wish the best for the others when you do not share the same glory as them.

Nonetheless nobody can stop you from trying.

Would we truly live up to being a friend if, on multiple occasions, we were to dispatch an array of demeaning remarks on each other simply because they did better than you? Would we want to treat them as a friend if we have to bear with their infuriating remarks? The Oxford Dictionary defines a friend as an individual with whom one has a mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations. How sure are we that we display mutual affections with everyone we encounter anyway?

Then again, it's all up to how seriously we regard the term 'friendship'. Sometimes addressing even the most unreasonable as a friend would spare you more troubles, but on a personal note, I believe that if we treat our friendships seriously, we ought to treat the way we regard people as a friend more seriously.