Friendship

The older I've gotten, the more I've come to understand the value and importance of true friendship. And I am not talking about the superficial relationships with people who never come to understand the true you. Personally, I've never understood how a person can say, "Hey these are my 20 best friends!!" Really? Do you really know them? Do they really know you? Can you be yourself 100% of the time, even if that self is wrong, dumb, self-conscious, or disgusting? Do you find yourself trying to be someone you're not when you're around them? Would those friends give you the very coat off their back to help you, and would you do the same for them? How would you feel if they were in trouble or sick? Would you take their burden on as your own? Those types of friendships take a long time to develop, and I think you have to go through trials in order to find them. A friend chooses to be there, whereas family almost has to be there. So the challenge is to not care about the quantity of your friendships but the quality.