In most circumstances, I think of myself as a good friend. In some circumstances, I'm sure my friends think I could be a better friend. Who is to say I haven't thought the same about them once in a while? But do I act less of a friend to my friends just because we've been unfriendly to each other? No, because you can never really truly gage the level of friendship to give to someone until they show you.

Friendship is deeply connected with love and loving someone the way a friend should be loved. In a friendship, you have to be able to give. You have to give each other attention, advice, or an outfit for their date on Thursday. I give until I have nothing left. I would give the shirt off of my back and freeze before I watch my friend move one shiver of their shoulder. The area I lack as a friend is knowing the difference of when to keep my mouth shut and when I shouldn't. I am a very vocal friend, meaning I always have an opinion on the boy you're crushing on or the boy that you keep running back to or the fact that you're just not smiling the same way you used to. I know it would be much easier just to say the things that would make my friends happy and to not criticize their taste in music or stop them from having that drink that would put them over the edge. I know I am the Mama Bear friend, but that's just how I love.

In every friendship, there are shortcomings on each side. In order to have a long lasting and worthy friendship, we must acknowledge the things we can't do. With acknowledging the fact that you can't wholeheartedly be honest about that tacky red dress your friend is wearing or by acknowledging the fact that you absolutely cannot stand her old friends from back home, you slowly start to form a friendship based around honesty and that's where strength begins to develop.

Here recently, I have come to realize that true friends come around rarely and when you find one, you hold onto them for dear life. I'm not the most perfect friend in the world, but I do realize when I am being loved by someone and when I am being neglected by someone... or when I am doing the same thing to them. It is not solely up to your friend to be your friend, it is also in the way you treat them. Ralph Waldo Emerson famously stated, "the only way to have a friend is to be a friend". Just treat people the way you want to be treated and hope that their mom beat that into their heads just like yours did.

Also, there are just some people who literally cannot be a friend to anyone because they are more of a taker than a giver and let's be honest here, when has a fixer upper friend ever worked out in favor?