What is a friend? We all have them, so we should know what the meaning is. Webster’s Dictionary says that a friend is, “a person whom one knows, likes and trusts.” Well, I know the super of my apartment building, I like the Beastie Boys, and I trust my doctor, but that does not make them my friends.

In my opinion, the word friend, like many other words in the English language, has become far too vague. I know hundreds of people that I consider a “friend” of mine, but in different ways. There are my friends from work, my political friends, friends of the family, and then there are my real true friends. It is of them that I wish to write about today.

What makes someone a real, true friend? A friend that you love?, that you consider a brother or sister?, that you speak to or see almost every day? I can’t speak for everyone, but I can tell you what I feel is a real, true friend. To me, a real, true friend is someone you know who shows you true caring and compassion, thoughtfulness and love; who gets involved in your life and cheers you on when you’re successful, but encourages you when you fall; who calls you to see how you are even when you don’t call them. They do these things because they know you do or would do the exact same things for them.

As I said, I have about one hundred “friends” in my life, but I have been blessed with a few real, true friends that mean more to me than anything. So much in fact that I am writing this column because I need to apologize to them, you see, I recently put their friendship to the ultimate test. For the last six months, I was not a very good friend to anyone. I went from speaking to or “hanging out” with my true friends all the time to hardly ever calling or seeing them. The fault is no one’s but my own, and I take full blame.

During that time, I became involved with someone and put that person above all else. Not only was that a big mistake in of itself, but it almost cost me my real, true friends that I would not trade for anything in the world – the problem is I almost did.

I am now happily single again – but not alone – because I have my friends. I must tell you that I truly expected my friends to tell me to kiss off for disappearing for so long and then suddenly re-appearing again – but they didn’t – instead, they were happy to see me and acted as if I was there every day. If that is not the definition of a real, true friend, I don’t know what is.

My advice to you – and to myself – is that a friend, a real, true friend, is forever, and nothing should ever come between that friendship, because there will always be lovers, there will always be new friends, but real, true friends are few and far between, so cherish them, always.