Being lonely is hard. Being a friend is harder. It takes effort to take time from your schedule and give it to someone else. It takes patience to give advice to someone and have it ignored and to encourage when your friend is reaping the results of not listening to your advice. It is hard to be the one in the wrong and to own up to the shortcoming and work to make it right.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” If friendships are worth having, they are worth the work that it takes to put to build them. I remember a couple of years ago, I was challenged to have lunch with two friend per month. The experience from doing that was incredibly beneficial, but it was also challenging. It was challenging to free up my schedule and ask someone else to free up their schedule to stop for lunch. But, soon, friendships were developed and built around a genuine support for one another.
The military culture is one that is tough on friendships. With the short duration assignments, many of these friendships develop but then a reassignment occurs just as the friendship is taking root. This situation makes it even more important that Soldiers and Families make developing friendships a priority.
The work put into a friendship and the heartache of saying goodbye, is a small price to pay for the benefit of meeting and having new friends.
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Quote from BrainyQuote.com