Friendship is one of the strange, yet most beautiful journeys we walk through in life. It grows with us, and sometimes… breaks us in ways we never expected.
But if you look back, the purest form of friendship always begins in one place:
School : Where Friendship Is Innocent and Unfiltered
School friendships are magic.
You don’t choose them based on status, comfort, convenience, or mutual benefits.
It’s the time when:
Sharing one lunch box meant sharing a piece of your heart
One bench held a thousand secrets
You never feared being judged
Back then, friendship was simple.
Uncomplicated.
Pure.
College : When Having a “Gang” Feels Like a Personality
Then comes college.
Suddenly, the number of friends you have becomes a symbol of how “mass” you are.
Late-night canteen tea, group selfies, mass bunk plans, heartbreak advice...
But college friendships, though beautiful not lifelong.
Adulthood : When You Realize Quality > Quantity
There comes a phase, usually in the mid-20s or early 30s, when life quietly teaches you something:
You don’t need a crowd.
You just need one or two people who actually understand you.
You begin cutting off noise.
You choose depth over numbers.
Your circle becomes smaller, softer, and safer.
You are content with just,
One friend you can cry to.
One friend you can call at 12 a.m. without thinking twice.
One friend who knows your scars and still stands next to you.
Those become your real people.
And Then… the Shock of “Community Friendships”
People who are in your life simply because you live in the same building.
Same elevator.
Same WhatsApp group.
Same festival committee.
They are friendly, yes.
Helpful, yes.
A part of your daily environment, yes.
But… they are not the ones who know your soul.
And that becomes painfully clear when someone you loved deeply starts replacing you with them.
The Hurt of Being Thrown Away for “Community Friends”
What hurts the most is not that she found new people…
It’s that she threw you away for them.
Your best friend:
the girl who shared your bed,
your midnight calls,
your coffee moments,
your heartbreak stories
suddenly found a new circle.
And instead of holding both relationships with maturity,
she pushed you aside because she now has “community friends.”
Friends who are around her simply because they stay in the same apartment.
People who entered her life out of convenience, not connection.
Hearing her repeat
“community friends, community friends, community friends”
felt like being stabbed with the same knife over and over.
It wasn’t just a word.
It was a dismissal.
A downgrade.
A painful reminder that someone you loved deeply didn’t fight for you the way you fought for them.
Sorry, my dear… I wasn’t able to handle ‘mature’ enough to ignore the way you showed your true colours.
It wasn’t that I failed. it’s just that you moved on because you wanted community friends. And yet… thank you.
This lesson, as painful as it was, is making me stronger than ever.
