Love and Friendship

The one where I express gratitude

by Ishita Gupta

There are different notions of love that we have all experienced until now. We have always romanticized the kind of love that sweeps you away—the one where time stops, the one where the protagonist looks into their partner's eyes and whispers those three words—that the audience is almost dying to hear. LOVE is so much more than that. People have different philosophical ways of interpreting love in general. According to me, one has to experience things to write about them, so let me start by delving into the love that I have experienced most until now—the most underrated one—love in friendships.

Most people say ‘love’ and ‘friends’ are different; they coexist with each other. I’d say love has a subset named friendship (mind my Maths coming into the picture). Friendship is a kind of love. The close one out there who won't say “don’t cry” but will just sit with you, hug you, and wipe off your tears when you are done. For the ones who don’t ask me what is worrying me when I say I’m stressed but, take me out to my favorite food shop and let me rant out my problems. The ones who live miles away but always keep in touch with those cute messages of how much they miss me and how I can always send my location because they always have my back. The ones who share every small detail of themselves as proud achievements to you.Those who say they are one call away and prove that. No matter how much communication is lost, the bond never seems to fade away. The ones who pick up my call at 1 a.m., knowing the reason I called, will probably be to cry about the things that were worrying me the day before. The ones who hold my hands whenever I feel anxious and the ones who never get fed up with me.

The ones who listen to a song and say “This reminds me of you”. The ones who don’t consider you a competitor but want you to succeed in whatever you do. The ones who hype you up even during your small achievements and the ones you hype up for the same. The ones who teach you at the last minute sacrificing their studies. The ones who make you feel like you deserve them, and they deserve you. I believe love is not the company of someone who makes you smile, but someone with whom you can smile while your tears haven’t dried yet.

With this, I send a big thank you to my dear friends, for the love they gave me and the love I will cherish forever.

P.S.: Rest in peace, Matthew Perry; I lost a friend too.