I am just releasing some bottled-up and recovered long-lost thoughts. Feel free to disagree respectfully and I will reciprocate likewise. However, ignorance is no defence. All statements are strictly my opinions derived from these two short decades of living.
Recent events in my life have revived a prickly issue of mine with friends. I have been intending to write this post for many months, if not years but never did find the time or heart to do it. I guess there is no better time to voice it out than now, while the iron is hot, so to speak. The issue I have with certain friends is that they drop you like a hot potato upon finding someone special in their lives, or in other words, a Significant Other (henceforth referred to by its abbreviation SO). I am aware that by broaching this topic, I am treading upon thorny grounds here, and stand to invite many ad hominem attacks if I fail to clarify myself. Though I suspect to some readers, no amount of reasoning will dispel such thoughts. While I will only be referring to people by the generic male pronoun (e.g. he, him, his), but I could actually be referring to either genders. Two reasons for this; English lacks a gender-neutral pronoun for people and the ambiguity of it reduces the opportunity for ad hominem attacks.
Let it be clear that I am making a distinction between a friend who devotes more time and attention to his SO versus the friend who virtually cuts off his or her other friends to obsess himself with his SO. While the former is to be expected and honorable, my personal opinion of friends who fall into the latter category- utterly despicable. The ones that leave you in the lurch simply because he ‘has no time for you’. I can’t help but find it all the more repulsive when they come crawling back post-breakup with their tails between legs, expecting the friendship to revert back to old days. Hey, how will I know that you won’t scurry off the next time you catch the scent of another potential mate? I suppose that my strong feelings against such people stem from bitter experience. Not just once, twice or even thrice. And so they say, once bitten twice shy.
People make mistakes, yes, I am very well aware of that. I have forgiven and gave friends another chance, only to be bitten again eventually. Heck, I have even earned crocodile tears from such friends for refusing them. While we should recognize love for the potentially lethal drug that it is, I feel it is barely justifiable as an excuse to discard one’s friends. I am not pointing any fingers, but am hoping that all my readers will give this issue some thought at the very least. Think and say what you must about me but please do not take your friends for granted. That is all I ask. Thank you for reading this rant.
Posted by Joel 
