Friend or _Friend__

A lump of flesh in a humanoid form, to the most part, is called a social being because of having traits which makes it bind meaningful relationships with other similar humanoid forms of flesh. Moreover, for maintaining and sustaining such relationships with other humanoid forms alongside other living beings, it is considered the superior of all living beings. However, in my opinion, they do not really form such “meaningful relationships” with others just because of having certain “traits”. No, of course, not! If so, then they wouldn’t have been considered the superior of all the lives on the face of earth, right?

There remains a lot of purposes before developing such an intricate relationship with another living being at some point. Now, there are many forms of relationships built which are termed quite differently, however, inherently, they do the same thing as any other relationship, that is to serve a purpose. Let it be a friend, a lover, a companion, or whatever one may be labeled as, they have their own duties and obligations to perform at certain points.

Now, for a human being, one of the most important relationships developed over the course of one’s life is friendship. There is a clear answer to that. However, we are not going to be simple about something intricate, here. The impact that a person leaves on one’s friend’s life is impeccable. There is hardly anything that can topple the sheer impact that a friend can have. But, as usual with every other thing on earth, friendship has two sides just like a coin. One, if developed, makes a person’s life more bearable amidst every adversity one has to endure. But, conversely, if the other side is to be faced, one’s life only becomes worse. Now, in the life of a student, the most influential time might just be the undergraduation period. At least, I consider it as one of the most influential times because of how difficult everything becomes during this period. Even something as usual as friendship needs to be developed after giving all the thoughts in the world. Now, developing bonds prior to university life remains quite straightforward as no one really bothers oneself with the fascinating idea of how another person can turn one’s world upside down. Before university, one only thinks about having some people around with whom one can share one’s feelings, hangout and do all the teenage things. But, when it comes to university life, nothing remains the same. Suddenly, everyone is concerned about their wellbeing and how friendships need to be developed carefully and becomes even more so concerned about whom to develop them with. However, here, we will only be pondering about how the first kind of friendships can impact our lives for the better and how the second kind of friendships can literally ruin our lives.

During the undergraduation period, when one can manage to get friend/s who are supportive and thoughtful of one’s situation, one should already consider oneself to be one heck of a lucky person. Why? Most of the cases, one will certainly face that what others intend on pursuing with a “friend” is nothing more than their selfishness. With even one good friend, who is considerate, mature regarding circumstances and actually remains the least selfless, life at university can become considerably better. By having the companionship of such friends, decision making can become much easier as one can fascinate one’s decision making with the insights provided by good friends. Besides, one can keep developing oneself with the presence of supportive friends. Most importantly, when one can have the presence of such friends in their life, one doesn’t necessarily have to constantly worry that he/she might get stabbed behind. I mean, it can still very much happen that a very good friend turns out to be a foe at some point of one’s life. But, the chances being marginal, one doesn’t really have to worry about it. For this, one’s life at university can become quite enjoyable and worry-free.

However, not everyone can get that lucky to have the best kinds, always, right? Even people having good ones can also have the opposite side of the coin to their lives. When such a thing happens, life can take a turn for quite the worse. With the inclusion of such people in life, the student life at university can literally become similar to hell because of the constant worry that one needs to be at due to back-biting that one has to continuously endure. Now, one might just say that people having such friends can just move away from such persons. But, the reality is, once one has indulged oneself with other people and creates some sort of bond, it doesn’t really become that easy to move away. Dissuading relationships is not the best thing to do when someone moves into one, neither for the one breaking it, nor for the other party. But, again, one cannot really fathom the presence of such persons either way. For this reason, life becomes even more difficult to lead at university. With the constant fear of being back-bitten and the trauma these “friends” cause, life starts to look all gloomy. The impact? Academics, extra-curriculum, personal life and everything start to take a toll. Performance starts deteriorating. One’s mind starts getting cluttered.

In simple words, the impact that one has to consider while developing relationships of any kind with others at university is too great. For this, one might even be terrified of creating any, to begin with. But, as a social being, flesh in a humanoid form cannot do anything but socialize with others and take the chance and carry along with luck. If luck shines upon one and prudence is shown, one can get away from any possible disdain coming from such relationships. However, if the opposite is to occur, one might have to bear long term consequences, arising from such relationships.

Author: Jarraf Rahman Rasha, Executive | Editorial, Voice of Business

Visual Designer: Adnan Asif, Executive | Publications, Voice of Business