The world of Relationships.

Humans, being a higher animal have the need to socialize be it intentionally or otherwise. This strengthens our bonds with each other and leaves room for great achievement to be accomplished. But in this medium, we find out that as time goes on, these communal trait develops into something more elaborate which I would want to delve into.
Now i believe most of us would be familiar with the words,friends,lovers,spouse,etc. These are various means to express various levels of relationships and I'd be touching on a part that relates to me being a young adult,since I'm not married yet.
Many a time,many people find it hard to differentiate between a friend from an acquaintance. Take for example,I am a student in college and due to academic activities, i might come in contact with a lot of persons like me, some i may bond with others just casual and passing acknowledgements would suffice, which i feel is a matter of which temperamental class they might fall into. Some could be the shy types others the jovial; and during the course of that particular activity, you might find out that you actually relate more with certain persons more than some others, but you know all of them. This doesn't mean they can be called your "friends" because you relate with them more than the rest! So I'd try to give my definitions of a friend and an acquaintance to the best of my knowledge speaking from the basis of experience.
A friend is someone with whom you feel free to express yourself be it whatsoever might be the issue because you have developed a level of trust in each others from having stuck with each other through thick and thin,thus knowing whatever counsel or advice given is in each others best interest. Now this boils down to the fact that someone who you meet today cannot be called your friend just yet because it takes a measure of time to build that friendship. Hence the need to know what acquaintances are.
For me, acquaintances are those individuals who you might have met one way or the other, you might have worked with them for a brief time,or the ones you just wave and say hi when you meet by the wayside. This arises from the fact that they haven't really had the "midas touch" as per affecting your life in the long run. Sometimes you find it easy to forget such persons after a period of being away from each other.
The other i would talk about is the dating aspect as this has rampaged most of the young adults today. Many folks jump into dating for the sake of romance which is now highly propagated even in music videos,others because everyone is doing it so why don't I jump in the fray too. So the actual aim of dating is defeated. Dating is,I would say a trial version of whether you are ready to permanently commit yourself to another person for the rest of your life.
With that being said,I would like to comment further on this. It is during dating you get to know your partners true nature/self and determine if he/she would likely be your spouse in future. This is not a smooth ride as many a times,it is a preliminary battlefront being that's two person of different backgrounds and upbringing try to co-habit and put up with each others differences. This is a tip of the iceberg compared to what the real deal(marriage) is.
That being said,i would like to speak from the standpoint of us young adults since most of us are probably finding our feet and not yet ready for such deep commitments yet desire such close companionship. One thing you must note is the need to develop trust. This is very vital if not the most essential ingredient of a flourishing relationship! Second to that is effective communication amongst others which I would elaborate further in my next post.