I have recently been thinking about what it means to be a true friend and really in this day and age it takes a lot. Things that used to be something chalked up to being just teenage girl traits, such as gossip, lying, cheating and stealing, are now trait common associated with grown women or men. To go with the flow of society is becoming more and more difficult, not because people are bad, but because these days there are so many bad choices. People have to literally take a stand if they want to just “be.” You can do the most innocent action and because of how our world is people assume the worst. This frustrates me immensely. We as people have stopped giving our fellow citizens, neighbors, family and friends, something so desperately needed, “The benefit of the doubt.” You have to be very brave and courageous in order to be a good friend, person, and really, you have to be brave to treat yourself properly.
In light of my recent revelation, I come across this poem and it really spoke to me heart.
IF
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
