Golden Friendship in the Digital Age

Courtesy: IndiaCelebrating.com

As a young girl, my mother taught me a song on friendship that said; Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold. This is a song that I have carried in my heart for the last 2 decades and it has helped me never to be disappointed with friendship in this digital age. 

Maintaining friendships with me has required deliberate effort more so in the years after my tertiary education. 

The four years on campus were just total bliss and I and my buddies would hang out and plan parties, sleepovers, and outings. Free time was not limited. I remember 2 of my greatest girlfriends who were always together that people would call the three musketeers. Flash forward to 5 years later our love still remains but our fun moments have been capped by life. 

However, since our friendship is golden and we have vowed not to miss out on important dates in our lives. They have not been many as yet and more effort has been required to keep us together. I treasure one of my girlfriends Liz, who leaves in Mombasa. She might be Kilometers away but we are always in touch. Whenever she is in Nairobi, her first stop is my house and whenever I am in Mombasa my first stop is her house. This has gone on for the last 5 years and we are now thinking of establishing a schedule to spice up our friendship.

I can also say comfortably that I made a lifetime friend and business partner from a lady called Corazon who started off as my trainee. How we became friends, I can’t explain but our journey has just begun.

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Yet another of my other golden friends is Benson who resides in Nairobi. I used to think friendship is measured by the depth of what you share with someone but he has taught me another aspect. I met Benson on campus and truth be told he was not my closest friend. Over the years, he has proven to be one of the most important people in my life. He has always stood by me in cash and in-kind to the point that he is now a friend to my whole family. Benson is a Computer Scientist dealing with both hardware and software and now he is our family service provider because I trust him with my life.

The one reason why I treasure this friendship is that from the time I met him to date, we have never lost touch. There was a phase in my life where my bank of friends almost went dry. This is around the first two years of motherhood and he was always there for me. For a new mother, it is impossible to run errands and he helped me out with so much grace. He has been of good support and we get to catch up every once in a while.

In the same spirit of making new friends, in March 2017 this year I meet this amazing lady during a life transformation forum and we just connected. Apart from being different professionals, we seemed to have so much in common. This has been one of my quick blossoming friendships in a while. From April to around October, I would say we have been seeing each other every week courtesy of a project we were both involved in but we had set time for us to catch up. 

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To mold and nurture our friendships, we agreed to be reading a book each month and then meeting to discuss it. There are 2 things that we are both committed to which are our spirituality and motherhood. About this, we have agreed to be going to a religious event monthly and having a fun activity with our kids.  I am excited about this new friendship. It does not always go as planned but we make it work.

Maintaining friendships in the digital age can be very tasking. Having numerous social media platforms has fooled us into thinking we have numerous friends and creates the illusion of close relations. Technology may bridge the distance but genuine concern and human interaction will still remain the true measure of friendship. I treasure my friends, the above are just examples of those who are consistent, but I am careful not to dare dream that I have a pool of close friends. Just be watchful and see who your true friends are.