Friendship

[Ace 0]

This is a pretty popular forward, but if you haven't read it before, or even if you have, it'll make you think.

 

"One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books.

I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd."

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.

They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.

He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives. " He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.

He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before.

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes.

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.

I stopped him and said," Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday! " He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.

When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always befriends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going! for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd.

He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.

Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!"

He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.

"Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began. "Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.

Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends...

I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them.

I'm going to tell you a story."

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.

He had planned to kill himself over the weekend.

He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

"Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved! me from doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.

Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.

 

Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse.

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.

Look for God in others.

 

"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."

[Jeanway 0]

^ IN RESPONSE TO YOUR LAST ENTRY, I'D LIKE TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU, ABOUT ANGELS. A POEM I WROTE ENTITLED ' WHITE WINGS'

 

FOOTPRINT AISLES LEAD ME TO PEWS OF WINDBLOWN SAND

STAINEDGLASS SUNSHINE, CATHEDRAL SKY ABOVE

WINDSONG HYMN IN MY EARS.

SOFT WHITE WINGS FLOAT AND GLIDE ABOVE OUTSTRETCHED,

CIRCLE AND SWIRL IN NUMBERS TOO HIGH TO COUNT.

FILL MY SIGHT, DRAW ME UP, TOUCH MY HEART AND SOUL

LIFT MY SPIRITS, FILL ME WITH PEACE, GIVE ME JOY

 

IT IS HERE IN THIS PLACE I FEEL GOD'S CREATION AND INTENT

AND I AM TRULY

IN THE PRESENCE

OF ANGELS

 

YOUR STORY REMINDED ME OF THIS, IT MADE ME FEEL THE SAME WAY

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

Friendship has little meaning to me in this day and age. I have distant friends, but that's it. The one close friend I do have, well, I consider her to be a sister as far as I'm concerned.

[cptwright 1]

those were both great, and so true, friends, true friends are a wonderful thing, and can help you get through even the worst of times. everyone should be so fortunate to have at least one true friend. ive always said i dont have a lot of friends, mostly aquaintances, but the friends i have are quality friends, and quality always wins over quantity. my buddy rick for example he without any question of time or money gave me a place to stay when i had no place to go, and his kids were great too, always making me laugh, and just plain feel good. its friends like this that make life a journey worth taking.

Edited February 29, 2004 by cptwright

[Goose 0]

Stardate:214161.9

 

 

Friendship to me is the most important thing in the world.My closest friends have helped me ot of so many difficult situations.I cherish my friends.They say blood is thicker than water but my closeest friends are more important to me than most of my family.Good story Ace

[v_seven 0]

^ IN RESPONSE TO YOUR LAST ENTRY, I'D LIKE TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU, ABOUT ANGELS. A POEM I WROTE ENTITLED ' WHITE WINGS'

 

      FOOTPRINT AISLES LEAD ME TO PEWS OF WINDBLOWN SAND

      STAINEDGLASS SUNSHINE, CATHEDRAL SKY ABOVE

      WINDSONG HYMN IN MY EARS.

      SOFT WHITE WINGS FLOAT AND GLIDE ABOVE OUTSTRETCHED,

      CIRCLE AND SWIRL IN NUMBERS TOO HIGH TO COUNT.

      FILL MY SIGHT, DRAW ME UP, TOUCH MY HEART AND SOUL

      LIFT MY SPIRITS, FILL ME WITH PEACE, GIVE ME JOY

     

      IT IS HERE IN THIS PLACE I FEEL GOD'S CREATION AND INTENT

      AND I AM TRULY

      IN THE PRESENCE

      OF ANGELS

 

  YOUR STORY REMINDED ME OF THIS, IT MADE ME FEEL THE SAME WAY

I found it Jeanway!!!!!

[stoned_vulcan 0]

ive got this friend who is a grl who i like and theres alot of stuff going on with her and i right now none of it is good though, and as for otherthings i have a friend steve hes kool i wish my friends were there for me more but oh well at least i have some

[Jeanway 0]

This is a song, I'd like to dedicate it to a friend, here on the site. I think I hurt his feelings. Just want him to know I'm sorry, and I do think of him.

 

 

 

I Can't Forget

 

I stumbled out of bed. I got ready for the struggle. I smoked a cigarette and I tightened up my gut. I said this can't be me, must be my double. And I can't forget, I can't forget, I can't forget but I don't remember what.

 

I'm burning up the road. I'm heading down to Phoenix. I got this old address of someone that I knew. It was high and fine and free, ah you should have seen us. and I can't forget, I can't forget, I can't forget but I don't remember who.

 

 

I'll be there today with a big bouquet of cactus. I got this rig that runs on memory. and I promise, cross my heart, they'll never catch us. but if they do just tell them it was me.

 

 

I loved you all my life, and that's how I want to end it. the summer's almost gone. The winter's turning up. Yeah, the summer's gone but a lot goes on forever. and I can't forget, I can't forget, I can't forget, but I don't remember what.

 

Everytime I hear this song, it reminds me of him.

 

 

From the, Leonard Cohen " I'm Your Man" CD

Edited March 16, 2004 by Jeanway

[Jeanway 0]

I wish more people would come visit this site, B)

 

 

Misery loves company. B)

[shadowfigment 0]

This is a great site... And since it has been built, "They Will Come..."

 

:cool:

[cptwright 1]

I wish more people would come visit this site, B)  B)

 

 

  Misery loves company. 

ah come on now what are you miserable for? "DONT WORRY BE HAPPY". its all good. and as for this wonderful place called STF.net or otherwise known as heaven on the net, people come everyday. but as long as a few good people i know are here its all good too. B)

[DixonHill1989 0]

I love this site.

[TSonofvulcan 0]

I love it too

[Tina 0]

deep man deep :)

[Gotabite 0]

 

Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse.

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.

Look for God in others.

 

"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."

Ace, this is a very powerful and moving story you have shared here; one I wish more would truly take to heart. What you did for Kyle the first time you saw him saved his life.........and it also brought into your life a truly wonderful human being that has made a huge impact on the person you have become today. You both have become very important to each other. Your stroy points out how we should never assume that because people seem different because of what we see on the surface, or how they behave on the surface, means that we could never have anything in common with them, or enjoy their company. There is an old movie, called "The Breakfast Club." if you've never seen it, I wish you could rent it. I think you would enjoy it very much.

[hangon 3]

Since i came to this site i meet so many nice ppl and made so many

new friends even when your down theres always some one here who

will try to make you feel good :huh: thats what makesthis site my home from

home!!!!

 

I LOVE THIS SITE AND WILL NEVER LEAVE...lol so be warned :huh:

[Deta 0]

Wow Ace you were a nice guy that day u saved his life! It's good to have people like you around!!!! :huh:

[Nemesis 0]

 

Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse.

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.

Look for God in others.

 

"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."

Ace, this is a very powerful and moving story you have shared here; one I wish more would truly take to heart. What you did for Kyle the first time you saw him saved his life.........and it also brought into your life a truly wonderful human being that has made a huge impact on the person you have become today. You both have become very important to each other. Your stroy points out how we should never assume that because people seem different because of what we see on the surface, or how they behave on the surface, means that we could never have anything in common with them, or enjoy their company. There is an old movie, called "The Breakfast Club." if you've never seen it, I wish you could rent it. I think you would enjoy it very much.

Gotabite, I doubt the story is about Ace because I've gotten it in my email several times. I myself have had a stituation like that, so the story isn't really that unrealistic.

[mj 7]

Ace, thanks for sharing that e-mail. I had not seen it before, or at least I do not recall having seen it. It gives me pause to think about how what we do can save a life, or also push someone over the edge. We can be glad when we makes a positive difference, but also have to sometimes bear the disappointment of not being able to make a difference.

 

I like the prayer repeated so often asking God to grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

 

I also have learned how to forgive myself when I fail to make the impact on a life I was trying to make. I call it "losing" or " striking out" when I fail to reach my students. But I am not discouraged from trying again, because I heard that Babe Ruth, one of baseball's greatest home run leaders , was also one if its strike out leaders. You have to try to have a chance of "winning."

Edited March 17, 2004 by mjham

[Ace 0]

I'm glad people are reading it and hopefully taking it to heart.

 

 

Gotabite and Deta,

 

My apologies for the confusion. Nemesis was right; as I stated at the beginning of the story in the first post, I got it in a forwarded e-mail. The story is not about me.

[Miss Satoire 0]

It's a great story, dealing with the importance of people in our lives. I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't been for my friends and my family.

 

And I'm really glad I stumbled across this site. Even though I've only been here for a few days, I get the feeling that many friendships are nurtured here.

 

Thank you all for allowing me become a part of it.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Here's a story about friendship I came across. It's sort of the other side of Ace's story - It's worth the read:

 

Click for Spoiler:

There are many ways in which we can misuse our opportunities. Some time ago I read a tender story written by Louise Dickinson Rich which vividly illustrates this truth. She wrote:

 

“My grandmother had an enemy named Mrs. Wilcox. Grandma and Mrs. Wilcox moved, as brides, into next-door houses on the main street of the tiny town in which they were to live out their lives. I don’t know what started the war between them—and I don’t think that by the time I came along, over thirty years later, they themselves remembered what started it. This was no polite sparring match; this was total war. …

 

“Nothing in town escaped repercussion. The 300-year-old church, which had lived through the Revolution, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War, almost went down when Grandma and Mrs. Wilcox fought the Battle of the Ladies’ Aid. Grandma won that engagement, but it was a hollow victory. Mrs. Wilcox, since she couldn’t be president, resigned in a huff. What’s the fun of running a thing if you can’t force your enemy to eat crow? Mrs. Wilcox won the Battle of the Public Library by getting her niece, Gertrude, appointed librarian instead of Aunt Phyllis. The day Gertrude took over was the day Grandma stopped reading library books. They became ‘filthy germy things’ overnight. The Battle of the High School was a draw. The principal got a better job and left before Mrs. Wilcox succeeded in having him ousted or Grandma in having him given life tenure of office.

 

“When as children we visited my grandmother, part of the fun was making faces at Mrs. Wilcox’s grandchildren. One banner day we put a snake into the Wilcox rain barrel. My grandmother made token protests, but we sensed tacit sympathy.

 

“Don’t think for a minute that this was a one-sided campaign. Mrs. Wilcox had grandchildren, too. Grandma didn’t get off scot free. Never a windy washday went by that the clothesline didn’t mysteriously break, with the clothes falling in the dirt.

 

“I don’t know how Grandma could have borne her troubles so long if it hadn’t been for the household page of her daily Boston newspaper. This household page was a wonderful institution. Besides the usual cooking hints and cleaning advice, it had a department composed of letters from readers to each other. The idea was that if you had a problem—or even only some steam to blow off—you wrote a letter to the paper, signing some fancy name like Arbutus. That was Grandma’s pen name. Then some of the other ladies who had the same problem wrote back and told you what they had done about it, signing themselves One Who Knows or Xanthippe or whatever. Very often, the problem disposed of, you kept on for years writing to each other through the column of the paper, telling each other about your children and your canning and your new dining-room suite. That’s what happened to Grandma. She and a woman called Sea Gull corresponded for a quarter of a century. Sea Gull was Grandma’s true friend.

 

“When I was about sixteen, Mrs. Wilcox died. In a small town, no matter how much you have hated your next-door neighbor, it is only common decency to run over and see what practical service you can do the bereaved. Grandma, neat in a percale apron to show that she meant what she said about being put to work, crossed the lawn to the Wilcox house, where the Wilcox daughters set her to cleaning the already-immaculate front parlor for the funeral. And there on the parlor table in the place of honor was a huge scrapbook; and in the scrapbook, pasted neatly in parallel columns were Grandma’s letters to Sea Gull over the years and Sea Gull’s letters to her. Though neither woman had known it, Grandma’s worst enemy had been her [very] best friend. That was the only time I remember seeing my grandmother cry. I didn’t know then exactly what she was crying about, but I do now. She was crying for all the wasted years which could never be salvaged.”

[icanreadyourmind 0]

Wow, they are both touching stories... Friends are one of Gods greatest gifts to us... :)

[Jeanway 0]

deep man deep :)

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Tina, you made me smile, AGAIN :)

[Jeanway 0]

I was cruising the old threads and found this one. I thought it warranted another look. I have made alot of friends here in the past year and was wondering how you feel about your friends in here. I've met people I would never have met any other way and they have added alot to my life. How about you? :)

[Valeris 2]

Wow. I love this story. I guess I can relate to it some, being a nerdy freshman who sometimes contemplates suicide herself. This was really touching though, thanks, Ace. And Jeanway, I know what you mean. Sometimes I think that the truest friends I have are the people that I have never even truely met. I do not know most of your names, where you live, your ages, what your lives are like, yet you guys are sometimes (okay, most of the time!) better friends than the people I know all these things about.

[Datalover_06 0]

friends are the greatest asset in life, without them, i would be lonely :)