Friendship; its important in our lives

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Happy New week, steemians on Steem4Nigeria. I am excited about this topic because I've enjoyed the benevolence of good friends, though it hasn't been so pleasant.
There's this saying that "some friends stick more than a brother". This is so true from my end.
Though in my younger years as an adolescent, I used to "fall outs" with my friends, that's because I was not mature and couldn't handle some people and some issues. But I'm no longer like that, I'm grown and mature, I now can handle issues better.
Please continue reading to get to know more about this topic from my end.

What qualities do you value most in a friend? Why are these qualities important to you?

The qualities I value most in friendship are "mutual respect and trust". I mean, if you don't respect me or if I don't respect my friends, their opinions and who they are it's not worth it. And if there's no trust in a friendship that means they're mere acquaintance not friends, that's why trust is very vital in any friendship because that builds confidence and mutual understanding.

Have you ever had a disagreement or conflict with a friend? How did you handle it, and what did you learn from the experience?

Yes I have. I've hard a conflict with a friend during my University days, she was my friend on campus. So one day I told her we should make friends with other brighter (intelligent) girls in our class so that we can be reading together and she said no, saying she's older than them and can't stoop low to their level to make friends with them. Since I didn't have any issues with who is older or not, I went closer to the two girls, join them to read and always sought for help whenever I had challenges. They were always glad to help me anytime. Little did I know my friend was angry that I indirectly said she wasn't intelligent, she distanced herself from me and started giving me attitude.

One of the days, I walked up to her to know what the problem was only for her to open her mouth waaaa! In her words, "you openly told me I'm not intelligent, that I should join the girls which I'm older than. I'm giving you time with your new friends.
" Me eweeeh!😭 "It's not so, I only wanted us to spread our tentacles, make friends with others and not just you and I, and also get help when we need one."

Our friendship went soured, we just remained just on greeting level. Infact, so much happened later which I can't write here. In all of it, I was so pained because I was on the mutual side while she was just casual with our friendship.
Today, those girls are whom I can say "I have friends".
In the later years, she called me back and we discussed like we used to when we were friends. No body mentioned what happened any more, I've forgiven and let go of that since.

"My friends who came to celebrate with me during my baby's christening in 2020. Pictures taken with phone"

What role does trust play in a friendship? How do you build and maintain trust with your friends?

If you ask me trust play a very important role in friendship. I personally can't make friends with anyone I can't trust or do not trust.
I build trust by being trust worthy myself, I give out what I want from others so that they can as well give it back to me.

How do you support your friends during challenging times? What are some ways you show empathy and offer help when they need it?

I support my friends by showing love and care to them, I also give to them. It could be material things and sometimes it could be moral support or words of advice.
I show empathy whenever there's need for it by showing concerns, I visit and be around my friends, I also try to know what the challenge is and sought for solution and I try as much as I can to offer help anyhow I can.

"Picture of me going to support one of our friends on her baby's christening too. Despite that I was heavily pregnant". 😃

What does it mean to be a good friend? How do you strive to be a good friend to those around you?

It's true that no one is perfect, so I don't expect perfection in friendship. So, a good friend to me is someone who loves and show care, someone who is concerned about what affects me and brings solution or comfort.
I try to be a good friend to others first by treating them well, I address people the way they are and how they want and not how I feel. I noticed that I always want my friends to be like me and when they are not, I get angry and walk away, that's why I give first to be able to receive.

In conclusion, I want to say that you can't be an island, your family members are good, your grown up children can be close to you, your spouse is your friend, that's true. But you need that one friend outside of your family members. There are people you can still trust or, have you tried me @eveetim?
Remember, you ain't perfect too!

I invite @realitytrend, @ememnkanta and @bossj23 to participate in this contest