Sunkyo Kang / page 80 / summer writing

The Fellowship

             Whenever I see or think of the word friend, I feel warm and comfortable from inside that I have best friends who are not perfect, but take up a big part of my life. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, friend means "one attached to another by affection or esteem." (Friend, 2017). However, I do not completely agree with because it is something more than just affection or esteem. In fact, a single sentence could not be enough to define the word friend. For me, friend means that I can go to their houses whenever I want and they would always greet me with warm welcomes, they are always there for me no matter who I am, what I do and what I need, and our relationship is the same even though we have met after a very long time.

             Friends, even though they show up spontaneously, ringing the door bell, always get warm welcomes. Sineth and I were friends since kindergarten but were in different classes in between primary and secondary school. He was one of my best friends who lived across the other end of Colombo, that is, the capital city of Sri Lanka. We began to go to each other's houses when we attended primary school. Even his parents welcomed me and treat me like their son—a Korean son. Whenever I go, I make the most expected entrance; give his parents the kisses and head straight to Sineth's room. "What's up?" he would say and I feel home.

             Friends accept each other as they are, no matter what religion, culture, or race. Sometimes, we encounter certain problems which make us hesitate to ask for help from our parents despite their unconditional love. The five of us, including Sineth as mentioned above, call ourselves "the fellowship." We always shared lots of memories and were there for each other whenever someone got into trouble. One day, as usual, we were hanging out at my house, playing soccer by the beach. Dimithri seemed to have something to say. So I asked him carefully whether anything was bothering him. He said it out, that he was homosexual. We were shocked for a while but soon tried to understand him so that his feelings were not hurt. Still we are best friends than ever before. What it means to be a friend is to accept him the way he is and always be there for him.

             Even though friends do not keep in touch every day, and has not seen each other for a long time, they do not change and will still be best friends. In my case, I came to Korea as soon as I graduated high school. My friends' farewells even made my tear drop because throughout all those years, there were no goodbyes between us. But I strongly believed that we would be seeing soon. That "soon" took me three years to return for a holiday. I was really excited to see how much they would have changed. When all five of us gathered again after a long time, apart from my expectations, we were just the same. Appearance-wise, we may have changed but our friendship had been staying here all the time. I realized on that day, that we will last forever and never change.

             Friendship may vary in definition to people because they have their own experiences of friendship. My friendship has somewhat shaped the person who I am today and has taken up a huge part of my life. There may be many friends around us but not all of them would mean to us as truly caring as best friends. Having a best friend means that their houses are like mine, are not attached but they will always show up, and our friendship will remain.

 

References

Friend. [1^st def]. (2017). Merriam-Webster. Retrieved June 28, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/friend