A friend is someone who listens to your hopes for the future and truly supports your dreams. They encourage you to never give up on your goals and let you know how much they truly believe in your ability to achieve them.
Far too often in today's world, we tend to be wary of sharing our hopes and dreams with people. We worry that people will think our dreams are ridiculous or unobtainable, so instead being passionate about what we really want to do with our lives, we retreat to our safe shell and try to fit in with the rest of society. Eventually, we remain in this shell for so long that we begin to lose sight of the hopes and dreams that we once had. We no longer believe that we should even try to pursue them, because we've been conditioned to believe that our dreams are stupid or impossible, and we've been told that we need to be more realistic.
This is why our friends are so important. True friends will not only ask you about your hopes and dreams, they will actually listen to you share them and express their heartfelt support in your journey to achieve them. Our friend is someone who will tell us with the utmost sincerity that they know that we can succeed in accomplishing our goals and making our dreams come to fruition. They are someone who has proven that they support your endeavors and genuinely want to see you succeed in life.
They understand that friendship thrives on vulnerability, and they know that the act of sharing your dreams and aspirations in life is a powerful act of vulnerability. They won't judge you for whatever your dreams may be. Instead, they offer not only their legitimate support, but also express their genuine belief that you can and will achieve them. They stand by you when your conviction begins to falter and remind you of why you wanted to pursue those dreams in the first place.
I'm going to do something different now and make this blog a little more personal. A little more human and a little less declamatory. It wasn't until I told my best friend my dreams and goals for the future, that I realized all of this. The amount of heartfelt support and belief that he expressed when I shared with him what I believe is my life mission, truly opened my eyes to this vital aspect of friendship.
The way it made me feel, to know that someone else in this world truly and sincerely believed that I could really go back home to Saipan and win an election and be the change I wanted to see in my home islands...it really was something else. It made me feel like my dream wasn't just this unobtainable pipe dream like so many people have told me it was in the past. Up until I met him, I had basically put aside all my hopes and dreams because I really had begun to believe that there was no longer any point in me trying to work toward that. I set those dreams aside and put them on a back burner because I had lost hope that I could ever make that a reality.
But the moment that he looked me straight in the eyes and told me that he really believed in me and knew that I could and would succeed in making that dream a reality, it was like the fire within me that had been dying out for so long suddenly had an entire bundle of kindling thrown at it. My soul was on fire once again, and something inside me shifted. I felt it. I suddenly found myself shifting out of this long cycle of lethargy and stagnation in my life, and I started to really, truly focus on how I could work towards that dream.
I began to get serious about doing what needs to be done to set myself up for success and ensure that I could get to a place where I could help my friends out without ignoring my own needs or wellbeing. My best friend showed me the importance of sharing your hopes and dreams with your friends, and I have taken that lesson to heart. I now let all of my friends know that I truly believe they can accomplish their goals and make their dreams a reality. I don't just tell them this and that's the end of it, though. I tell them this and I try to show them avenues where they can pursue those dreams and have a real chance for success. I've been trying to show them to Steemit. I have been sharing my own success stories with them in the hopes that they will become emboldened to come check this place out and try to pursue their dreams through this platform.
If we don't support our friends when they share with us their hopes and dreams, then what's the point of calling them our friend? Everyone else in the world is talking down on their dreams and making them feel like they should "be more realistic" or "practical" about it. Be different from everyone else. Be a friend. Listen, truly listen, to their hopes and dreams. Make them feel like they're not just crazy pipe dreams. The act of sharing one's hopes and dreams is an act of vulnerability. Remember that friendship also relies on vulnerability and support. If our friend can't feel comfortable being vulnerable and sharing those dreams with us. then we haven't fully extended a hand of true and meaningful friendship to them.
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We live in a day and age when our hopes and dreams tend to take a back burner to the daily drudgery of that 9-5 grind because everyone tells us that we need to be more realistic. Friendship In a New Age means making those dreams come alive again and sharing them with our friends, and believing in our friends when they share their hopes and dreams with us.
Did you enjoy this discussion on Friendship? Check out some of my previous Friendship In a New Age posts below!
