I have always looked at life like a journey. A journey that you had to go on by yourself, without the aid of anyone, or anything else. However, despite this solitude, there are always others who will cross your path, and for a time, be it very long, or very short, they share the same road. You experiance the same tribulations, help eachother around the obstacles-just provide good company. And sooner or later, your paths will diverge and each will go their own way, making for themselves an individual and very solitary road.

My somewhat cliche metaphor for friendship.

It has been my personal experiance that friendships cannot always endure the test of time. for some reason, I make friends very quickly, but with the same speed that we grew together, we grow apart. this realization often leaves me feeling very lonely and inadequate. Because why else would I be left alone so often? But once I started to realize that this was mearly the natural order of things, the same sense of lonliness did not seem to apply.

This is a better way to look at it. Every person you meet, every friend you have on this metaphorical journey, is a gift. For the short time that you are together, walking the same path, you are learning new things not only about the other person, but also about yourself the world around you. This is what shapes you into the person you are, what molds your attitudes, your opinions, your passion. All of these things that are so vital to your persona, are a result of the pieces of everyone you meet in this life (friend and enemy alike). You take a little something from each person and add it to yourself. Without these pieces of self and experiance, your personality would be a little grayer, a little duller, and little more stagnant.

So even though we are alone on this perpetual journey throughout our lives, we are never really alone either. For we will always have little pieces of
our past friends with us, part of us, at all times.