The Gift of Friendship

So, why the hell I been watching Braceface old cartoons from back in the day and one episode came on about friendships. The title of the episode was all about Sharon and let me tell you it was not. It started off as cool, but the new girl in a group made the relationship really toxic fast. The girl who name I can’t remember tried to intervene in Sharon relationship with her best friend Maria. She started off as being cool but after a while she became clingy, overbearing, emotional violate, and controlling. I didn’t see that coming because in most relationships when friends who have been close for a long time, they usually have miscommunications about spending time together.

Which I would know because I have had my fair share of friendships in my life. Now due to an error in miscommunication the new girl showed her ass. She basically had a breakdown and went behind her back and made friends with her arch nemesis Nina Harper. Who basically hated Sharon because she was confident and enjoyed her life. Now keep in mind after seeing she made a mistake by not honoring her feelings she tried to apologize, but you know what the new girl was like. She said, nawl bitch I don’t want to be cool with you anymore.

So, after that the girl started to become spiteful towards her and it was quite disgusting. Because in my mind I’m wondering what the hell did she do that was so bad? Besides speaking up for herself and the new girl tried to ruin her relationship with Maria. So, who’s wrong in this scenario? The point being made she had wanted to apply for a job and the new girl was supposed to help her, but she ended up helping Nina. Come to find out it was supposed to be acting job but Nina had to paint fences in a pioneer costume. Talk about dodging a bullet.

The things I took away from this episode is that when you see something is getting out of hand you should speak up the first time. Instead of brushing things under the rug for the sake of the relationship because if she never would’ve said nothing, she would’ve lost more friends dealing with her. Sometimes we find ourselves being more empathic to someone else situations than our own. That it is causes us to lose out on a part of ourselves by dealing with other people needs better than we do our own. When we are making major life changes in our life sometimes, we can forget about the people around us or even ourselves. Because we never stop to say I made it, I did this, but I was afraid.

Sometimes acknowledging our own vulnerability can stop us from making decisions that affect us later on down the line. And another thing I realized with this episode is that what is for you will be for you because yes she helped Nina get the job, but look at what Nina had to deal with. Nina was so focused on getting a mini me that she didn’t recognize her hatred for Sharon cost her cognizance and locked her in situation that she truly didn’t want to be.

Sometimes being spiteful ain’t so cute because once you settle down, you’ll recognize somethings can be a burden. In my many friendships I have had in my life I noticed I started losing a lot of people when I started to speak up for myself. I wasn’t rude or crude I just stated what the problem was and if it couldn’t be fixed, I walked away. I didn’t sign up to make friends with people to be emotionally trampled over jut to say I got a friend. And on the flipside too I’m glad Sharon had enough common sense to cut off that new girl because just imagine if she would’ve kept being her friend and later on down the line she created a Regina George burn book. Y’all know how it is being a woman and making friends and soon as you fall out with them, baby just know your business is coming too.

Just know that sometimes in life we create friendships with people, and we fail to recognize that they need a friend in us too. Sometimes we find ourselves adjusting too much because of how a person makes us feel before we even recognize the things we lose out on. I get it we live in a day and age where everything on social media seems so real that we fail to recognize that when the cameras go off, they have a human experience too.

I said a long time ago that different social media outlets are just a journey to someone emotional expression. It’s just seeing which one is more relatable to you. As you navigate this human experience don’t forget about you, what you need, and how you feel! ME TO ME! Because just like the new girl some people may not have your best interest at heart go watch the episode. So, you can see how she was so attentive to her every need and turned around and did it to her enemy with ease. She did it so she can feel some validation in her human experience. It wasn’t about Nina or Sharon she just wanted someone to make her feel like she matters.

That’s why say all the time sometimes it ain’t about you, it’s about them….