Finding True Friends and Keeping Them Close

While my father told me many things, there are two that seem to stand out. The first is that most people, in the end, really don’t care about your issues. It’s not because they’re bad people, but because they’ve got their own lives and they concentrate on themselves. The second thing he said that I find to be very true is if in your lifetime if you can find one, two, maybe three people you can completely trust (in addition to your spouse), who become your true friends, you should consider yourself lucky.

I was blessed enough to find a couple of really amazing people who would be lifetime friends while I was in law school. To be candid, they got me through.  But recently, I’ve run into another person who I both admire and respect and at the same time enjoy being around. He is a good person. His morals and ethics match up to mine. He believes in many of the same things I do. And he genuinely puts my interests ahead of his. It is so similar to the two I sat next to in large classrooms during my legal education.

There are so many good people out there in this world. But life sometimes is complicated. And my father’s right. Sometimes people have so much going on in their own life, legitimately, that they don’t have time to reach out to you. But when those special lifelong friends do so on a regular basis, I am more and more appreciative as I get older.  And I realize how lucky I am.  

Walter Winchell once said, “A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”  There is a lot of truth in that….and I appreciate those who have walked into my life and made a difference.