Friendship Fundamentals

So far this week I've been feeling highly sorry for myself as I have managed to catch the Flu and so this entry was written partially out of boredom and partially out of attention seeking. This respite from my normally busy busy life has made me think about the relationships I have with people and the essential ingredients needed to make them thrive. One thing I can tell you for sure is that visiting your friend whilst they are unwell is definite brownie points, so thank-you Navid! Anywho, I want to highlight the factors I think are important when it comes to both friendships and relationships.

1. Love Your Neighbour - Even if you're not a Christian, treating someone the way you'd like to be treated is crucial for maintaining equality in any relationship. Therefore, if you're going to act completely irrational around your friends for no explicit reason, you really shouldn't be surprised if you wake up one day and realise that you don't have any friends. If you want to be regularly texted by your nearest and dearest, make sure you text them just as often to find out how they are doing. If you're sitting on your own feeling bitter that you haven't been invited out by your friends, give them a call and find out if they're free to do anything! You get out what you put in so if you're going to be lazy with your "friend's" feelings, don't expect them to give you any special treatment.

2. You've Got To Show Me Love - It's not always enough to just hang out with the people you care about because as human beings we're all a little bit insecure. A little reassurance and reinforcement goes a long way in relationships and will build a strong emotional foundation between both parties. Obviously, there is a time and place for everything and so confessing your affections for your friend out loud to them during the pub quiz is probably not going to go down very well. If you feel your friend could do with some reassurance and reinforcement but are not the type to express yourself, there are other means of letting them know how much them mean which brings me on to my next point.

3. Surprise! - Everybody loves a pleasant surprise, everyone. If you're sitting at your computer, shaking your head, you're just being coy because the idea of somebody thinking of you and going out of their way to get you something that they know you like is enough to bring a smile to anyone's face. Now I know that there's nothing worse than introducing materialism into a friendship, where one person buys another person a gift and then they are then expectant they will receive something in return. This is not what I'm getting at, more the idea of being thoughtful towards your friend and it shows that you've been paying attention to them. I don't know about you but I love it when my friends just listen to what I have to say and nod and smile even if I'm talking nonsense. That in itself is enough, further demonstration of this thoughtfulness would be putting what you've heard into practice!

So there you have it, the three key principles that I believe are the bread and butter of any decent friendship. Of course, I've probably missed out a few key points and I might have worded things a little oddly but I can get away with it as I'm writing this entry from my sickbed. Nevertheless, I hope you can relate to what I'm saying here and even better demonstrate it towards people that you love because I don't think appreciation towards one another is promoted enough.

I dedicate this entry to my nearest and dearest including the Gtown Crew (you know who y'all are, I'd be here for a while typing all your names out :P), Tom, Josh, Nan, Granddad, Mum and Dad!

Catch up blog entry

I best let you all know what I've been up to over the past few weeks as I've neglected blog for quite a while now. I've very much been focused on investing in my future and so have had my head buried in the books (or internet tabs) doing coursework and looking into work placements. Talking of which, I have spent the last week at Bradford's local newspaper, the Telegraph and Argus - granted my role there was largely administrative but it helped me to appreciate newspapers on a wider scale. I had a brief meeting with the sub-editor who explained to me the difficulty of getting into such an industry and that the choice to be a writer should be fully vocational and not a way to make money. I was quite aware of this fact however and plan to make money as an author, not as a columnist.

Something I would like to raise though, is the limitations of certain careers - I don't understand whether people willingly get into these situations of not. For example, for the majority of the week, I was working with the advertising department of the T&A which sells ad space to various companies. The people that work there are for the most-part in dead end jobs, I know because there are people there that have been doing telesales for the past 20 years. At first I admired the fact that they had such drive to achieve their targets and did this every single day from 9AM to 5:30PM but then I started to question the mentality of these people. Do they not realise that they are in jobs that will bring in very little money and satisfaction for a long period of time? Didn't they ever once dream of being astronauts or teachers or archaeologists?

It has made me seriously think about my future job prospects and my aspirations of being a writer. My inspiration is none other than J.K. Rowling as she created an alternate reality and has made absolute millions from it. I want to be like that one day and for now that is all I know. I've never put any serious effort into writing fiction as I do admit I have a lack of confidence in my own ability but it is still a feasible option. I can definitely write items of interest because my teachers enjoy reading my essays and you guys like reading my blog as far as I know. It's just a matter of putting the skills and the dream together with the glue that is hard work. For me, this involves, three years of an English degree for which I am aiming for nothing less than a 1st and then a further pre-entry journalism qualification approved by the National Council of Journalists; I'll probably have to throw in a bit of work experience into the mix as well.

I'm not 100% what you wonderful readers will take from this entry other than the fact that unless your dreams are completely ridiculous (like my avid desire to be a cat), then they should not be put aside. Of course, in accordance with the bitch that life is, it isn't going to come for free and in fact, it's going to take a lot of effort on your part, and no doubt lots of tears as well. You'll get there though!