1/ Since I’m lying in bed & have to think, I’m going to expand on an earlier quote about allies & friendships... Just indulge me...
I grew up in a rough part of London & we grew up with a ‘code’ & one of the most important parts of that code is ‘loyalty is everything’...
2/ No matter what, your boys should come first. In my mid to late teens, I would have happily jumped in front of a friend at harm to myself if it meant that I saved their life.
I feel in with the wrong crowd, disobeying my parents & not even focusing on my studies...
3/ My mum hated my friends. She knew that they were no good & was so scared for me she put me in another school out of the area to keep me away from them.
It did no good.
I was walking around the ‘Endz’ like I owned it, just as long as I could be with my ‘boyz.’
4/ I wasn’t doing too well in school & luckily I had an uncle who looked out for me. 1 night while I was outside the station, he came & picked me up.
My uncle gave me advice that changed my life. He said “no friend will help you make choices that will mess up your life.”
5/ He continued “most people get friendship wrong. People think that your friends are those that are there for you in the hard times. That’s partly true but the greatest test of a friendship is when you are doing well. Jealousy can make the best friendships bitter.”
6/ He then told me “any friends where you feel you have to dumb yourself down & force yourself to be something that you are not are not for you.”
& Uncs was right.
To cut an incredibly long story short, I started to realise that when I had certain life successes...
7/ like good grades, learning to drive, going to Uni & even getting married was met by indifference. I remember almost getting into a fight with 1 of my boys cos he said I was acting “too big for my boots & I was acting like I was better than them” - cos I had a new job!
8/ My circle is nice & right now - I move with some people from Bits but not the 20 - 30 guys that I moved with regularly.
Some people are with you for a certain time but they are not going to be there forever.
One last clue of a good/bad friendship is their view of the time.
9/ the friendships where you can only talk about the past & how you used to be exclusively are the ones that tend to break because as you grow, you are having less & less in common.
Decent friendships focus on what you are doing now in the present. But the best 1s look at
10/ Where you are going in your future too. Your allies will look at the potential in you & will help you bring it out.
Your allies will cheer you on & indulge ur crazy dreams offering a support & critique when needed.
I hope that you all find such friends, twitter peeps. Fin.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.