In my own words, extinct means something that used to exist should cease to. Extinct animals include Dodo, Passenger Pigeon, Tasmanian tiger and so on. These are animals that used to roam around the earth before they ceased to exist due to so many factors. The way friendship is handled in this generation, it will soon cease to exist. Are there really true friends out there? This is my question and I hope someone can be bold enough to answer it.
When I was in college, I had 3 close friends and we had this tradition. The last person to resume used to take the rest out and buy food and drinks. Well, I was always the last person to resume and this continued till our final year in school. I refused to buy them food and drinks and one of them got angry. He made a statement I will never forget:
If you are not buying then we are not friends. We are even rolling together because of the benefits. No benefit, no friendship.
I laughed but learnt a bitter truth that day. Friendship these days is about the benefits you gain from each other. This is not what friendship should be about, it should be based on trust, understanding and care. Yes, care has to be there because a friend in need is a friend indeed. How many people can beat their chests about the friends they keep? Very few, this means true friendship is going extinct. A friend, in this generation, will ask you for hundreds of help and when you ask for just two, you hear stories. Some will even tag you to be needy.
Someone once told me if we hear what our friends say about us before they pic our calls, we won’t call them again. This is true because it has happened to me before. I was on a voice call with a friend on discord, she didn’t know she was on push to talk. What she said is unprintable but I ignored because I know how it is. True friendship is rare and it is all our fault. We pick friends base on convenience more than similarities. A true friend will accept you for your flaws and seek for your progress. When your friends ask how you are these days, it is either to know if they are better than you or you have something to say that they will gossip about. This is why you should know that your friends that gossip about others to you will definitely gossip about you to others.
Why did animals go extinct? The major reason is because of poaching which is simply wickedness. Most poachers know the animals are endangered yet they kill them for money and sport. This wickedness is extended into friendship too. If not, why will someone born of woman use a friend for rituals or deceive to hurt all for the money and fame? What this world need is body formatting. People’s minds are so evil that a factory settings, if possible, is the only solution.
Be friends with only people you can tolerate and endure.
Stay true to your friends, they are in your lives for a purpose.
It is wrong to gossip or say bad things about your friends. If your friends offend you, correct them privately.
It is right to argue and have differences but true friendship warrants you settle and learn.
Friendship is forgiveness and learning combined.
Finally, if we want friendship to survive this period of endangerment, we should learn to be true to our friends. We should know that birds of the same feathers flock together – this means if you have bad habits, you attract people with your habit. A leader once said: we should be friends with people that have the same ideas with us but better at our desperate pursuits. So they can teach and help us achieve our goals not laugh at our mistakes. Make the right choice of friends and let friendship live not go extinct.
