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Michelle Elisabeth Varghese's avatar

This resonated with me so much, especially in the moment in time when it found me. One thing I’ll add is that as I grew older, I was surprised to see that some friendships get resurrected. We sometimes grow apart and then evolve back in the same direction. I think especially the older ones, there’s a similar foundation of values that keep us together. That being said, for me, as the friendships grow in age, the harder it is to let them fade.

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Minh's avatar

Yes!! I found this too - and I appreciate it when it happens. There is a saying that if you are friends for over seven years, then youre friends for life :)

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Michelle Elisabeth Varghese's avatar

Ahh I love that! I think it's so true!

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Brenna's avatar

I am a friendship lover!! Sometime I’ve learned is that if we let friendships naturally ebb and flow instead of holding on tight - you will be surprised how things will fall into place when you need them the most.

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ER Kumar🇲🇾's avatar

Love your articles on friendship, Minh. Let me share my experience about friends. We have a group of classmates been together for the last 52 years,about 10 of us. We left school in 1972 & went our own ways to build our careers. One migrated to NZ, Australia, Canada & the rest of us in Malaysia that where we live now.All of us try to meet up over here in Malaysia once a year. When we get together, we will have lots of fun talking about our good old school days. Although we are all aged but still young at 💗. This is what I call true friendship! 🙂 This article is from bottom of my 💗

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Minh's avatar

Oh thank you for sharing ER - I appreciate perspectives from people like you who have more experience in life and seeing friends over longer period of time than I do. Its such a gift to hang out with school friends - everyone acts like they are small again:)

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Vishwa's avatar

I’ve realized that drift is inevitable, and we should embrace it rather than resent it — the acceptance of the circumstances allows us to ebb and flow, recognizing when better circumstances arise and resurrecting connections. I’ve also seen myself be surprised by which friendships faded and which ones strengthened — people change, a lot.

People also say some friendships are worth fighting for. I tend to think it’s more about fighting yourself in those cases to understand and accept, than fighting to change the other person’s behavior. Fighting against someone’s agency will turn out poorly for both parties, even if you were right — it’s not correctness that matters in those cases as much as the care and emotional handling.

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