A few good friends

This morning I woke up thinking about friendship and what it means. Through out life our friends are destined to change and by the time we are grown most likely we have chosen a few good friends who we can always rely on.
When I first began school all of the girls, it seemed, would try to meld themselves into one big group, while the boys did whatever they felt and most often chose to randomly gang up on the girls.
As time passed and we moved up grade by grade I noticed a change. Some of the girls were being systematically weeded out of the large group and sent to be alone in another area of the playground. You see, we began to develop personalities and perhaps attitudes about who was good enough to be in our group and hang out with us.
I was always one of those kids who never let myself conform to fit in with those girls when they started belittling others and chastising them from the group. I would do whatever I wanted, often it entailed me going off after the person that was recently kicked out of the group. I did not want to be the person to hurt anyone. I never agreed with what the so called "popular girls" did to the others whom they felt were not as cool as them.
After a while I was no longer a true part of the "popular group" because I had a conscience and the girls I once called friends were now too good for me. I was unable to stoop to their level so I was ousted from the group, even though I was never mean to them in return.
In middle school some things never changed. I was still chastised by the "popular girls" from elementary school. I managed to make an ex-boyfriend enemy, and when i liked a guy who was apparently in the "popular group" because I had good taste in guys, I was then chastised by the guys as well.
So when does this whole superiority complex take place? Why do some people think they are so much better than others? If we do not like someone, are we not to just let them be and keep our distance?
While on the subject of friends, I would like to mention facebook for a second. If you are not on my facebook list, it is not that I do not like you. It's more or less that people tend to add everyone they possibly can think of. If you came to me and needed help though, I would always be there. I am always willing to help someone, even if we are not that close. My nature is to be there and help whenever I can, even if we aren't close friends. I love all people.
Anyway, back to school. In High school I floated from group to group. I was not in the "popular group," and by this time I had no desire to be, these girls ridiculed me for what appeared to be no reason, and they dragged others in on it. Now when I say ridiculed, I mean ridiculous comments and faces for no reason that was apparent, but this was no where near as bad as other people had it. I can only think of a few people who treated me crappily in high school, I forgive the boys who picked on and teased me because recently I met up with one of them while out in the cities and he was very gentleman like and sincere. I also met up with one of the women; the woman who treated me the worst and if I were to say I had an arch nemesis, she would be it. The tallest girl on the basketball team, she had long dark brown straight hair and most of the time she looked angry. Now some of you may know who I am speaking of, but lets not name names. I want to say, despite the way she treated me, I forgive her. I don't know what her life was like, maybe her home life was miserable and she needed to take it out on me, who knows. If I ever did anything to hurt her feelings or to be insensitive to her, then I wish she would have told me because I was clueless.
Now that I am out of high school and almost out of college I know that I played the game all of those years and I won in many ways. I never quit and I made myself stronger for that. I know I hurt some men relationship wise, but how can you avoid that? You really can't unless you marry every one of them and that might be a bit awkward. I never purposely set out to hurt anyone. I wanted to be friends with everyone, and be civil to anyone I did not care for.
In college I started to realize that I had a few good friends. I still have a few good friends.
I had a friend once who went off and got herself mind blowingly drunk, I took her from security at a concert and got her safely back to her campsite, and made sure that she wasn't going to end up in cardiac arrest. I missed a music act that I had really wanted to see so that I could keep her safe. Her high school friends were back at the campsite, they informed me she had been gone for five hours and they were not worried, because that is just her nature. No one was looking for her including her boyfriend. Now you tell me, who is the real friend in that situation?
This is what a friend is: A friend is someone who will be there when you are at your lowest point and they will give you the encouragement you need. A friend is someone you can go out and have fun with and it is not at your expense. A friend is someone who can hurt you by telling you the truth you need to hear, but be forgiven because later on you realize they are only doing what they think is best for you. A friend is someone who does not run out on you or leave you hanging. A friend is the person you call when you cannot wait to tell someone about your accomplishments. Friends are the people you celebrate your ups with and mourn your downs with. True friends are there through thick and thin and you know in your heart who those people are.