footprints..

It's funny how life turned out to be. Years ago i would never have imagined myself being here in the very spot i am standing right now. I still remember back when i was younger; in the days of "no worries about future", i had weird ambitions like being a professional squash player, and even had many things that seem like big worries in my life at that point of time. Now that i look back, i may still laugh at my ambition back then, but i was glad i have been through all the pain and worries that i complained so much about. It was indeed, because of the very things i have been through, that i become who i am today.

If i was asked to list out the very little things that hold me together for so many years, i would name friendship as one of the top of the list. It is no wonder that friendship comes just next in line after God and family. The very day we step out of our house, we meet new faces other than our very own family members. We go to school and realized that there are many others just like us; of the same age, similar size, similar thinking, similar laughter. Then we grow up, and we meet more people, not just from the limited compound of a school, but also the society. And as we walked along our path of life, many people from different walks of life steps into our lives. These people are then referred as friends.

Our lives are no longer to ourselves anymore the very first time we shook the first hand and introduced ourselves to someone. We start sharing our lives with people we call friends, and in return we share their lives too. Pain, happiness, sorrow, tears, joy, excitement, anxiety and fear; we went through them with our friends. Then, as time goes along, we would have met a lot of people, and we start to realize that not everyone of them is the same. We start to experience pain, hurt, betrayal and even rejection in the friendship itself. After much experiences we then come to our senses that there are two main groups of friends; true friends and acquaintances. The difference? One shares both pain and joy with you, the other, just the happy things.

There is an illustration that expresses friendship as the depth of footprints people left in our lives. It was indeed very true. If we think about it, we would not stay put in one place for the rest of our lives. We are bound to meet new people each and every time we reside in a new place, we will then make new friends due to the given circumstances. It is true that we can still keep in touch with friends that we made, who are far away, but we would not be able to be there personally with them anymore; to share and experience their lives. Thus, we move on in life, and start to share our lives with new people and share theirs as well, slowly but surely leaving footprints in their lives, when we are no longer with them.

So the question is not so much of whether you have true friends, but are you a true friend to others? Be a friend, not just an acquaintance, and start leaving footprints in people's lives. And hopefully deep but not shallow footprints. Make a difference in lives of the ones that cross path with you.