Incredible India monthly contest of March #2| Value of friendship.

There’s this saying that no man is an island and we need each other to survive. That’s when friends comes into the scene. Friends are part of our social circle we can confide in and share deep secrets that even our family members don’t know.

In today’s post, i will be sharing with us my first best friend which of course happens to be my cousin but as life may have it we went our different ways.

But before I go ahead, let me invite some special guests of honor to participate in the contest. @diary-of-ima, @lovelystar and @bossj23.

(pix from 2022)

The value of friendship is when someone always has your back and is always there for you, no matter the situation you are going through. Even when you are angry and wants to act in a certain way, he’ll give you the best of advice to handle the situation.

Their loyalty to you is never in doubt because you know very well, they can be trusted and would never betray you.

In your low moments in life, they will always encourage you to forget about what is making you feel sad. They are always there to listen to you at all times and keep you updated on the recent gossip in town.

All this makes our life’s journey more meaningful and fun because no man is an island.

Yea.. there are things you feel very comfortable discussing with your friends but you find it hard to tell your blood relation because we are scared they might judge us or maybe make mockery of us.

For instance, I can feel very comfortable talking about my “sex life” with my close friend than discussing such talks with any of my family members because it feels so weird to me.

Some type of crazy lifestyle you live outside home with your friends, you can’t come and share it with any of your siblings because there are chances that after telling your siblings, they might broadcast your whole secret to the family the day you make them so angry especially younger sisters…

But with friends, they keep certain matters confidential in some cases as a sign of trust and respect.

Another reason we find it more easier telling friends certain things is that assuming we are facing a particular challenge or in trouble, we tell them believing that they might have experienced such ordeal before or might have answer to it or a different point of view……considering the fact that we grew up from different backgrounds, they must have come across such experiences before we became friends.

My first close friend happens to be my second cousin and we were born late 80’s but he is just older than me with just a month but whenever he wants to introduce me to some of his friends, he’ll be telling them I’m his younger brother. That alone can make us argue for about 5 minutes because I don’t see someone that seniors me with a month as my senior.

He loves sports as well and very good at it especially football, table tennis and snooker. If he wins you, trust me, you won’t sleep for the next one week because he’ll use it and taunt you and tell other friends how he won you. Whenever he plays any opponent better than him and he’s about to loose, he will run away half way to the ending of game. He just hate to loose. I am good at table tennis and snooker games, thanks to him. Most times he places bets on my me to win an opponent, so that he can use me and brag as his boy.

Another thing he’s good at is learning handwork very fast and has that hustling spirit to make money. He drives, he does welding, he builds house, he paints, he does carpentry work, he does sandblasting and a whole lot more. I made my first large money all thanks to him. Since we are living together, he will carry me along with him to learn the ropes of the work. The only thing I didn’t learn from him was welding because of the eye problems i usually have. I have short sightedness.

But the bad part of him is the fights and very stubborn. He will never agree for you or allow you intimidate him. The same way I’ve benefited a lot from him is the same way he has also put me in so many troubles. He knows that if I’m there, I won’t run away if the fight comes up and that’s how you see me involve in some crazy fight that I’ve know business with especially in parties.

I am just the opposite of this my cousin and I’m surprised through out our stay together, we never had any single fight.

Talking about, if we still get in contact or not…. We still talk till now but not too often because he got a job as a welder in another state. But we do meet December, during our annual family get together. We use the opportunity to catch up on old memories.

(pics from 2013)

I have a lot of memories with him. But there is one that stood out that I can’t forget because I still have some of the scars on my body and that’s on his birthday.

My guy got admission into one small private polytechnic. I don’t even know if they still exist till now because I remember always using that school to tease him. I wasn’t surprised when I found out that he’s their Student union president and director of sports. He went to the school and taught almost all the guys street slangs and most of this street slangs belongs to some set of cult groups.

That day, I left all the way from my university, to come and join him to celebrate his birthday in a popular club around his school and a lot of his course mates came as well for the birthday. Things were going pretty well, it was so much fun until one of his school friend messed up and was speaking some of those street slang and one of those cult guys overheard his statement and told him to stop saying slangs he knows nothing about. This “gen Z” guy refused to listen and was even threatening the cult guy.

The cult guy left him and went outside making some call. I just knew problem was coming. I told my cousin to call his friend to order, that he should stop speaking anyhow in public places. About an hour later, few ladies from his school rushed into the club to call my cousin to come and save that guy. I didn’t want to go at first because I knew that with the drunk state my cousin was, we’ll definitely fight but I can’t stay back because he’s not only my friend, he’s also my brother and we’ve had so many fights together.

He got there with some of his course mates from school, while I watch from behind to see what happens. Usually, whenever me and my cousin wants to fight group fights like this, he’ll make some pranks call on his phone as if he’s calling for reinforcements but is all lie.. he’s doing it just to put fear in peoples mind but he didn’t do it this time because he believed his course mates got his back and we were plenty.

My cousin got there just in time, to stop the whole fight because he knew those street guys from football. They told him to warn his friends to stop saying certain words in public and that’s the reason they were beating him. I was so happy everything was been settled peacefully until one crazy guy from the cult group decided to slap my cousin for teaching his course mate those slangs.

My cousin, been who he’s , use the drink bottle and smashed the guy’s head. I had know idea both of them have had quarrel in football field before that day. That was when the whole fight started. Nobody saw it coming that way…. All my cousins course mate had run back to their hostel. I am guessing, that’s the first street fight they are seeing and they didn’t think it was this bloody. Just few of us stayed back. Me, I didn’t have a choice, my cousin was my no 1 priority.

We got the beating of our life that day with blood all over our body. We manage to escape from the guys hand because the bouncers from the club intervened. They ran after us, reaching the school premises, the security guard allowed others and didn’t want to allow me inside the school because he didn’t know me and I wasn’t a student of their school. He wanted to feed me to those big bad wolves chasing after us.

It was my cousin and the other guys that entered the school, that spoke on my behalf before the police men allowed me into the school premises. I am just imagining those crazy guys finally catching up to me, they will kill me that night…. Lol.

Anyway, that’s the last fight I ever had till date. Since then, I don’t go to parties with him or some kind of places that the chances of us fighting is very high. Till now, we still remember all our fights and that particular one is the one we always use to tease each other because the scars are still on our bodies.

This is just few of the scars.. the rest is on my back and head.

In life we meet people and with time we become so close to a particular person but like the saying goes:

twenty friends can never play together for twenty years.

That’s just the truth. We grow apart due to certain circumstances beyond our control. So, as you’re with your best friends, enjoy the moment and enjoy the adventures they come with.

Contest link:

https://steemit.com/hive-120823/@meraindia/incredible-india-monthly-contest-of-march-2-or-value-of-friendship