Benefits of Friendship

Three Benefits I Have Had With a Close Friendship When the traditional family, one with both parents and the children living in the same home, only on television or from an outsider’s perspective, the families appear to be perfect. The family seems happy all the time. However, when looking at your own family it is sometimes realized that this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, in some families it is the complete opposite, and in my family specifically, I thought it was the norm to be dysfunctional. That is until a close friendship changed my views on family life. My friendship with my best friend opened my eyes to the true meaning of sisterhood, the normal dynamics of a family, and the meaning of unconditional love. I have four sisters and none of us have the bond of sisterhood. My younger sister and I grew up in the same household and maintained a strong dislike for one another until adulthood. She and I fought for our mother’s attention, were blatantly jealous of one another, and would constantly fight. As far as my other three sisters were concerned, they were from previous relationships my father had with other women, one of whom I have never met. Being that those sisters lived in separate homes they were more live visitors whenever they came to visit. More like a friend than a sister. I never went to any of them for advice or guidance on any subject matters. They never seemed open to the fact that I was their younger sister and never offered the guidance of an older sibling. So it can be understood how my ideas of what sisterhood was about could have been misguided and/or misunderstood. However, in meeting my best friend I learned what it is like to have a confidant, someone I could tell my deepest, darkest secrets and not be judged. She was the person I could go shopping and out to eat with. She was the person I called and whose shoulder I cried upon when my mother recently passed away, not my biological sisters. She was there in my