Forgotten Friendship

Real friends are those who treat us like a family even if we are not related by blood. Even if they are not beside us, we are still connected by our souls and hearts.

That's what I always keep in my mind whenever I think of my friends who I am not hanging out with lately due to pandemic and we are just stuck in our house studying for our online classes.

We are not bonding anymore but I am still connected with them through online chats and virtual call. Sometimes, I still felt sad whenever I realized that I am not with them physically and I cannot see them personally.

Gladly, I still have my true friends who still keep on checking me out and never get tired of replying to my chats once in a while even we are all busy with different stuffs. But, I also realized that some of them were not the same anymore.

Through this years, some of my friends are getting far away from me. I don't want to act like a childish one who will rant and think of broke friendship just for no replies or no contact with them, but I have this feeling and intuition wherein I am very sure that I am not already playing a part on some of my friend's life.

Here's the story:

I have this friend whom I am very close to before given the fact that we became classmates during Senior High Years and we even shared a great memory and bond with each other during those times. I treated her as my own sister and I can feel that she's also treating me the same way. I am pretty sure that she's sincere with those actions she showed to me so I never doubt her with that.

But, things started to change when pandemic started and we cannot go outside anymore without restrictions. We became stuck in our own home and we've never seen each other for almost 2 years already.

Of course, we still have contact with each other during those days, and I understand her when she never had a chance to reply to me for quite some time because maybe, she's busy, same with me as well since I am also busy with other stuffs like when it comes to my studies, household chores, printing business and among others.

Those days, we are checking on each other sincerely without hidden agenda of benefiting from each other. But now, I don't think there's no sincerity anymore.

She's only chatting whenever she needs something same with my other friends before. As much as I don't want to get hurt, the pain is slowly lifting me to face sadness I've never wanted to feel.

Our conversations merely revolved on educational stuffs, asking me if I can help her in doing her essays, reaction paper, and other learning tasks.

I thought, helping her out will make us to be reunited again but, whenever I sent all her needed answers, she will just react "like" to my messages and never replied anymore.

I remember the time when I changed the topic of our conversation and I ask her instead if she's okay, and if it's fine to catch up with each other's life stories without involving our acads. She said, she's so busy, and maybe we can just talk next time for that and focus more on her dilemma. I clearly understand her situation because maybe she's rushing for things or what, but, when I saw her shared post about random stuffs and even replying to fun comments, that's when I started to question myself if I am really a good friend to her or if I did something wrong that will make her upset to my behavior.

Days and months had passed, she never replied to me anymore but, one time, she started to bug me in my messenger account. She started her message wuth "how are you?" followed by "are you busy?" I thought, that will clear things up on my mind and my doubts of her will fade away but, I was wrong since she just chatted me again because they have their oral presentation and she asked me if I can help her in finding the references of her topic.

Now that they are just starting the first week of their classes, her name never shown up to my messenger again for almost 3 months, never replying even though I am checking out on her lately. That's the case with my other friends as well wherein they are just chatting me when they need something and as their friend, I often grant their requests but not to the point of doing everything already without them working on it.

I am merely giving some advices instead of answering their activities directly, because I realized that they're being dependent already, and that shouldn't be tolerated anymore.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Am I really just befriended because of the benefits they can get from me?

I think, yes. But, despite the situation and their behavior towards me, I am still keeping the memories we've shared to each other and I still acknowledge them as my friends.

On the other hand, I am very thankful for those real friends of mine because even though we're not always communicating, still, they never forget on replying and checking me out even if they don't need something, just to catch things up that we've missed to talk about since the pandemic has started. Their treatment never changed and I greatly appreciate the simple acts of strengthening our bond, and that deserves to be focused on rather than being sad on forgotten friendship.

Real friends are rare, so if you have one, keep them and never break the bond you've shared.

Author's Note:

I want to express my gratitude for those who are consistently supporting me everytime I'm publishing my works. To all of my old and new readers, thank you very much for always leaning your time in reading my articles. And to my sponsors, I am so grateful for having you all, I hope you are all doing fine and happy.

May God bless you always! 😇❤️

Advance Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅

Date Published: September 28, 2021

Lead Image and Gif: Originally made by me using Canva