Guys tend to establish a great friendship like playing video games or having a cold drink on a Friday night. But sometimes girls are able to help you out in ways you probably wouldn't get form a guy. Over the years, I've had an ordinary female friend because we always managed to work together throughout high school and stayed good friends years later. The most important thing I’ve learned from her was moving forward with positivity, something I never got from a guy.
We had several things in common such as our passion on accomplishing tasks. In fact, our friendship was established because of our involvement in high school. Even though we had things in common, managing conflicts was our contrast. She handled it better than I did and it took me years to handle my conflicts accordingly.
I’ll openly admit that I can be hard to deal with because of my high standards in academics. If something doesn’t get done like a video project where you have an hour time limit, I take it out on my group because I knew they didn’t got the job done.
On the other hand, her strong leadership background allowed her to deal with people easily. It’s probably why she’s pursuing a teaching career and I'm not because she has grown to deal with people who wasn’t organized or cared to meet deadlines. Plus, she has handled a burden longer than I’ve done in my life.
The way I’ve dealt with people who aren’t goal getters is trying to be persuasive so people can finish an assignment on time. But if they don’t listen, I’ll simply let them storm their issue and see the consequences unfold. Even if we coped our conflicts differently, the two of us put up with each other because we had trust and mutual respect.
Like most friendships, we’ve had our hardships. For example, I used to have personal demons like unable to “let things go” that happened two months ago. She would always tell me those three words in high school and yes my friend said it before it was mainstream.
At first, I didn’t listen to her because I would constantly be frustrated about the past. It gotten to the point where I took my frustration towards her. No matter how frustrated I was then, it has allowed me to grow as a leader because she has helped me to move on from unresolvable conflicts. As a result, it has allowed me to let go my personal demons.
Even when I'm frustrated, she knew right away when I’m not in a great mood and usually leads to a "what’s wrong" response. Most of the time it had to do with personal problems like my other relationships with girls.
It didn't bother me telling her these issues because she was the one I’ve talked to and worked with the most in high school. In fact, out of all the friends from high school, she would have to be the one person I felt comfortable telling my struggles.
When we went our separate ways after graduating high school, I didn’t quite value our friendship until last summer because I felt bitter that my high school days were over. But as years go by, I realized she was one of the only friends I had in terms of quality conversations and caring for one another.
I’ve been thankful for a lot of things and my friendship of six years has been one of them. People tend to forget that we should be thankful 365 days of the year, not just Thanksgiving. Looking back, I valued our times in high school where we would work for hours on school events or planning activities for my graduating class. Through thick and thin, we’ve learned from each other.
It’s something about girls that you learn something from that you probably won’t get from a guy friend. Like learning how to be delicate with a girl without bringing out your inner ego. Also, understanding how to move on from stuff that’s out of your control in an easing manner. More importantly, you don’t have to be in a serious relationship to establish a valuable friendship with a girl.
Those are some of the things I’ve learned from her over the years. I guess a friend pursuing a teaching major and being involved a lot allowed me to learn the meaning of friendship outside of guys.
