The Bond of Friendship

We all make mistakes, what's important is to have someone by your side who is willing to help you through hard times. Now, this is where my hero's come in… I always hear the same things from adults, "you're so mature for your age!'', '' you're not like other kids I've seen," and even "I've never seen a kid like you!". I've always had these comments about me being this ‘mature’ kid who always makes the right choices, and that couldn't be further from the truth. My Heroes were there when I was at my lowest. I always had them by my side whenever I needed. It's kind of silly, but my heroes are none other than my elementary school friends Ian and Gangil. You might be thinking "Elementary!? Well surely weren't at the lowest point in elementary school!", Well, you’re right. But the way I see it we always helped each other grow. That drastically affected my middle school years. I have a terrible memory, so I don’t remember much from when I was a little kid, but I do remember how I met both of them. I met them separately so I’ll do Ians first. I was in first grade, we were waiting for class to start and I was wandering around the room looking for something interesting. Then I remember spotting him drawing a character from a video game I liked at the time. I sat next to him and said. “Wow! You draw so well! Could you teach me!?”He was immediately intrigued by my interest and taught me how to do it. The next thing I remember is drawing the same character with him throughout the whole day and hanging out with him ever since. Gangil on the other hand, was a bit of a rougher start. Although it’s still a little blurry ,  I remember sitting next to him at a table while we were both drawing animals. I, for some reason, decided to comment on his drawing by pointing out the flaws. This slowly turned into a small argument between who had the better drawing. We ended up not talking much afterwards but we eventually figured it out . 

Okay so, I'll start by how we helped each other in our elementary school years. In elementary school we were all dumb kids, I started hanging out with them because I didn't like how my friend group at the time was treating me. We bonded through our hobbies, we mostly talked about our hobbies in our early elementary years, but over time, the conversations would start to shift. We would tell each other about our problems at home, any mental problems, or anything that bothered us. I grew to have much admiration for my friends and how they would handle my emotions.  By handling my emotions, I mean that they were always good at comforting me when I got anxious or really sad. Now that I think back on it, the friend groups I had before never really comforted me or cared about me as much, so when my friends comforted me I always felt like they were some kind of gods, (Even though that's how friends are supposed to treat each other).  They influenced me greatly, but that was also mutual. Ever since I was a little kid I had always been a person that stood up to people when I felt like they were being silenced, bullied, or getting picked on. I like to say that me standing up for them gave them a little bit more of a backbone, which somewhat helped them with standing up for what they believed is correct. 

An example of something they did was help me find my greatest hobby. I always drew in class as a kid but never took it seriously, it was mainly meaningless and I never put any effort into it. Then I met them and found out that they knew how to draw well which made me start drawing a little more for them. I was intrigued by how complex art would get and started drawing different things that would show how I'm feeling, as if pouring my emotions into the paper. Little did I know this small hobby was going to become what I wanted to do when I grow up. Nowadays all I want to do is draw and pursue an illustration and story boarding career. Crazy right? Something else that they helped me with was dumb choices, sometimes I would get extremely angry when people picked on us and immediately started to fight, but both my friends were and are unaggressive and hated conflict, they would teach me how to calm down and to let things go from time to time. The last thing and most important thing I think my friends taught me is how to let go. I've always had a deep bond with them, and seeing them both move away was heartbreaking. I remember drifting apart in that period, not talking for over six months. It felt like they had just disappeared from my life. I hated this division but I just had to live with it. Over time, we started talking again, we would call in groups, chat for hours and update each other on our lives. It became something normal that we still do to this day and, at this point, it's almost like they're attending school with me!

I don’t know why my friends decided to help me and endure the emotional dumps that my young mind would throw at them, but I’m so glad they did. My friends are a valuable part of my life, they were with me through some of my key years of development and made it so we all benefited from the friendship. By having each other in our lives, we helped each other grow by overcoming emotions and facing problems.We shared memories, learned valuable lessons, and most importantly, learned that: Change can be difficult, but it's how we grow, it can be the hardest thing to realize you can't hold on to something forever, sometimes you have to let it go... But of the things you let go, you'd be surprised, what makes its way back to you.