I still remember in our school days, a couple of times we were given an assignment to write an essay on: My Best Friend. During those days; it was just a review of a few paragraphs highlighting the importance and qualities of the best friend and quotes like “A friend in need is a real friend.” But today when I am writing this article on the importance of best friends, it has a completely different meaning to me. The true message of that exercise: why best friends are important in life, is understood in due course as I have aged over all these years.

Friends … we all have them, right? Or maybe we all think so. I would like to share with you one of my personal experiences during my graduation days at CTAE, Udaipur. I tried to blackmail one of my friends while forcing him to ask a personal favor, “Aren’t you my good friend?” He replied, “No, we are not even friends, we are just bathroom rugs, studying in the same batch of the engineering course.” He was the person I spent most of my time with during those days. The word friend is misunderstood most of the time. It may be that those people you party with, eat with, and hang out with shouldn’t be called friends. Even all virtual friends on the friends list of social media platforms like Facebook shouldn’t be called friends.

Let’s try to understand who friends are and the reasons why best friends are important in life.

Best friends share your good time

Sharing good weather and happiness with friends is priceless. It is often sharing the happiest moments with friends that enriches your life. It’s great to have a good circle of healthy friends. You create a strong bond with close friends who want the same thing in life: to live a happy life and be surrounded by happy people. Best friends share laughs, memories, and inside jokes. They share your good time and increase the feeling of happiness when you achieve something significant in life. If your friends aren’t there to celebrate, that success doesn’t make sense.

Best friends help you through bad times

The best or true friends always be honest and by your side no matter what. They dry your tears, they pick you up when you fall, they offer their shoulder to cry in difficult times. They are present in all areas of your life, as you deal with heartbreak, job loss, business losses; breaking up with loved ones or separating from their parents. They make you laugh even when you think you’ll never smile again. They help you by listening to you after your failures and advise you on how to recover after a failure in life. Friends help us in more ways than we can imagine and, above all, they help us broaden our outlook on life.

Best friends are the best critics

“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” – Henry Ford

Your best friends know you well, sometimes better than you do, and they aren’t afraid to tell you things you don’t want to say to yourself. They will judge you without prejudice and show you what is right and what is not. They will always criticize you for your wrong things and help you get rid of the immature parts of your personality and become a better person. True friends won’t mince your words or criticize the parts of you that need to be criticized. The honest opinions and advice you receive from your best friends will make you an improved person overall.

Best friends are extended family

You cannot choose your family members, but you can choose your friends. Friends are the family you choose, your brother from another mother or your sister from another man. Best friends are your extended family. Sometimes you may have difficulties with your own family. You may feel misunderstood, misjudged, ridiculed, or even ignored. In that case, your best friends often replace what your own family does not provide.

It would be better if you could find a good friend in your own family. It can be your spouse, siblings, and cousins. Your parents or children as good friends can be the best.

Good friends are your comfort zone

The circle of friends of good and true friends creates a comfort zone for you. They accept you as you are … all your merits and demerits, your strengths and weaknesses, all your good and bad habits. You can be what you are, you don’t need to hide something and show something else in front of them. True friends support and encourage you, tolerate your flaws, accept you unconditionally, and take care of you no matter what. You can share, discuss, and explore your feelings with them. You feel comfortable in the company of friends. Your life is like an open book to them and they already know all the inner details of your life.

Best friends for good physical and mental health

Healthy friendships from good friends create a healthy environment around you. Good friends become more and more important to health and happiness as you get older and add more years to your age. According to one of the most recent studies, childhood friends are most valuable to your health and well-being. Last year, in the magazine Child development, an article was published, in which researchers found that having best friends from childhood can play an important role in a person’s mental health into adulthood.

As you get older, the importance of friends increases, in old age friends play a more critical role than families. During that time, children and other family members are busy or sometimes pretend to be busy (yes, few pretend and it is a bitter truth) with their profession and personal matters that elderly parents feel lonely and lonely. During that time, your best friends are your support system. Your mental health is much better if you have few good friends with you.

Having real friends is good for you is a well established fact today. In recent decades, several studies have shown that social interaction is a critical factor for good physical and mental health. In these social interactions, your best friends are the most important.

In short, it is not necessary to have a large entourage of friends; In the end, you will be able to count on your most genuine, trustworthy and real friends on the one hand. This life is about the people you share it with; do your best. Surround yourself with good friends and always be a good friend in return.

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