What does friendship look like?

To me it looks like;

Sharing...

Sharing my hopes;

My dreams,

My ambitions,

My fears, 

My experiences;

Including how my day went,

The things that made me really happy, really upset or really worried. 

It’s the feeling of being heard and understood,

It’s the feeling of being able to unravel myself in so many words. 

To me It looks like;

Being there...

For the birthdays,

The graduations,

The weddings,

The bridal showers, 

The promotions at work, 

The moments of success, 

But also for the other times,

Times of loss or defeat, 

In sickness or 

When faced with death; 

Being there;

Be it physically or via text or a very long voice note, a phone call or a month long count down...

It’s the feeling of knowing that I’m not alone. 

To me it looks like;

Knowing me...

Sometimes better than myself.

My friends remember the things I’ve long since forgotten,

My friends told me I had a type,
Long before I knew I had one,

My friends know where home is;

They know Mhamha and Daddy,
Chenge and Chiye, Malachi.

They know Aunty and our two dogs.
They know where we keep the spoons.

To me Friendship It’s the feeling of familiarity,

That in whatever form of self I am in someone else knows where the footing lays. 

To me it looks like;

Coffee dates early in the morning, 

And photographs, 

Lots and lots of photographs!

It looks like adventure and travel,

It looks like heaps and heaps of memories;

Like laughter, 

and 

Sometimes tears! 

It is treasure in the form of experiences. 

To me friendship looks like the faces of successful men and women who are all over the world doing their thing,

Each of them holding pieces of my heart. 

xoxo

Chido Dziva Chikwari 

I am one of those people who are blessed with many friends. I have been fortunate enough to carry on friendships from high school, I was lucky to make new friends in university and I have had the privilege of making more friends out of school and through work. Many of them much older than me and some younger. I treasure them all and thank God for such amazing connections. What does friendship look like to you? 

“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”

-William Shakespeare