Types of Friends

In this world, there are two things that makes your world go round. First, you meet the right persons and be friends with them. And second, you meet the wrong persons and still be friends with them. Why is that so? When you meet the right persons, you would enjoy their company and eventually value their friendships. But when you meet the wrongs ones, you would feel how tiresome it is to tolerate their attitudes.

In that sense, it is necessary to differentiate your friends in order to protect yourself from being harmed and violated.

1. True Friends. True friends are hard to find according to old adage. The secret of finding true friends is to be a true friend also. One fine story about meeting true friends was shared to me by a Muslim friend. His father died because of protecting a friend who was about to be killed in action by an enemy. His father offered his body to protect the life of his friend and that made the friendship sealed with loyalty and genuineness.

2. Part-time Friends. These kind of friends exist for some reasons. These friends will only appear in your life when they needed you. In a number of 100 friends, 5 of them are your true friends, and 95 of them are part-time friends. I suggest that you try to think over these realization.

3. Interest-based Friends. These friends are not really harmful, but they serve as your silent enemies. Interest-based friends have the same interest as yours, so the calculation is that they do the same things as you do coupled with the competition inherent in every existence. Thus, it is wise to think over who are those friends that might be your potential silent competitors.

4. Accidental Friends. Accidental friends are those conditional friends that may disappear in your life once the condition is lost. For instance, Isabelle becomes friends with her boyfriend's friends for years. When she and her boyfriend broke up, her closeness with her boyfriend's friends also loosened without counting the fact that her past boyfriend is already involved with a new girl. Accidental friends are very dangerous because they could use your past friendship with them to bring you down.

5. Plastic Friends. We know that plastics are non-biodegradable and are fake. In the field of making friends with people, being “plastic” is commonly used. Plastic friends are synonymous with “users” because they are often used interchangeably. These kind of friends are those who are good to you when they are in front of you, but when they are not, they would smite you by whatever schemes. Plastic friends are very dangerous because they are like snakes who are lurking within your comfort zones.

Since no one is an island, we still need to have friends with anybody. What we need to do is to choose our friends wisely in order to prevent disloyalty and problems. We want to enjoy our daily activities so we need to spend it with the right associates. Hence, what is important is a little number of friends who are mostly the true ones.