Friendship Lessens
Sharanya lay in bed staring at the ceiling. The fan whirred making such a racket that she wondered if it would fall on her head. With only the sound of the fan punctuating the silence, she recalled all the broken friendships in her life. The path of friendship had never run smooth, at least in her case.
She just didn’t know how to maintain boundaries when people tried to get too close. That’s when she recalled her dad’s sagely advice. “ Let people earn your trust”. “Believe in reciprocity”.
She then understood that she had to teach people how to treat her. For starters, for every message she sent out, she had to get a reply. That was one of the tenets of reciprocity that most people in her life failed. It led to unequal and dissatisfying equations with people. As she ruminated on her life, she made tough decisions. She completely cut off from people who had harmed her emotionally and transgressed boundaries with her in the past. It led to an upheaval in her life, but as each day passed by, she started regaining her confidence in herself and her abilities.
She rebuilt her life around her work and interests and gave less importance to the people around her who had eroded her confidence over time. She did, indeed, rise again from the ashes. And it wouldn’t be the last time. For wasn’t she the proverbial phoenix? Wouldn’t she re-invent herself and adapt to the new environment and challenges around her? Knowing her dad believed in her and had her best interests at heart was all she needed as she moved forward in life. So in preparation of father’s day, she wrote him a little story to let him know how much he meant to her.
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