Loading ...I thought about it a great deal, and I am pleased to say that I have a few great, real friends. Ones you get to keep for the rest of your life. No matter where we are and however much we may be separated one day, it might sound cliché, but I will always be there for them, just as I believe they would be there for me. What I’m talking about has nothing to do with keeping in touch through Skype: it’s about the idea humankind somehow worn out, exploited and diminished in modern times – friendship. And not in a simple, casual way, like who do you go buy your lunch with or who do you tell your stories to. Best friend is somebody who is in all those stories. It’s a great quote I read somewhere on the net. I’m not at all into those simple motivational slogans, but from time to time some do move me.
Well, this great friend of mine inspired me for this post. It’s one of the things great friends usually do; they keep you questioning yourself about the important tad bits. After she had read my blog, she joked about writing an entry titled “A Survival Kit for Friends of Applicants”, because friends do get a lot of burden to carry. Think of it for a second: all of this you are doing is so grand, important and interesting for you to deal with you will surely tell all about it to your best friend. And when you give up going abroad, the friend will be your shoulder to cry on. When you reconsider and decide to pursue it anyway, the friend will hear you out. When you start crying about leaving your family, your city and the rest of your life, the friend will sit beside you and refrain from lying about how you won’t miss any of it. And after that, when you are all hyped about your test results, the friend will of course celebrate with you and hear out the entire story of your epic success, and pretend s/he hears it for the first time.
If you still can’t see my point, I’ll go further. Your friend maybe knows what s/he will study, maybe s/he doesn’t. Maybe s/he never thought about going abroad, or was never interested, or entirely doesn’t get why you want to leave home in the first place. So really, your entire application story is excess and uninteresting, except a single element – yourself. My point is? Be easy on your friends. They are always interested in your wellbeing, success and happiness. And you have to put them into the process as well, it’s inevitable. But they don’t have to know every detail of your SAT preparation, or the filing of your finances, or fitting into USA school system evaluation. They don’t have to know which college has a greener campus, or where do students have higher test results – to your friends, they are all equally distant (very, very far away). You will need their support, more than ever before. Be aware that sometimes you can get very difficult to handle. Don’t chase your friends away with self-centeredness, the process can get that out of you and be aware when it does. I’m also telling this because, if somebody is not your best friend, he might not want to stand any of it. So, the personal level of admission process is not just about knowing who you are academically-wise, it’s also about finding where you would belong to, and what kind of people you need around.
I made all of the mistakes presented. And yes, I did chase several people away, and freak out some of them. I was caught in fights I still haven’t found purpose of. Amazingly, I did keep some of my people close, and that’s why I was talking about what real friends do.
I have gone so soft right now you could model me in a big red heart easier than you would with soft clay. I think I’ll stop now. I have one more story about friends and how friendship backs you up, but that will wait for another post. Up untill then, I’ll show you some useful guidelines to recognising a friend.
A small fiest of friends. Some just happened to be there. Some will stay forever. As you see, it really made no difference then. Siena, Italy, 2008.
This is what best friends look like after a long day of racing through museums, ice-cream and pancake shops. Vatican, Rome, Italy, 2008.
A textbook example. When you see somebody smiling like this while you're taking the photo, find yourself doing the same, and you cherish that as a memory of its own, well, that's a best friend right there. Fontana di Trevi, Rome, Italy, 2008.
Yet another textbook example of a friend. If you have been together through everything since your early teens, and can still amazingly stand each other, you know you're best friends. Enginnering Student's NightClub, Belgrade, Serbia, 2009.
Also, there are childhood friends. Priceless. You can sometimes lose contact. Not see each another for a whole year. But time after time, you will meet to catch up. You can never ever forget about one another. It's only natural, you've knoen each other for your whole lives. Costume party, Belgrade, Serbia, 2009.
I think I’ve just melted down because of the nostalgia. So, how come I’m ready to go even when I am very content with everything I have? Well, maybe it’s time for me to move on and become independent of my parents. I certainly have my ambitions in science to drive me as well. And also, there is a lot of amazing people in the World I may come by someday, that would be a shame not to meet.
Sincerely,
Milica Stankovic
Matemati?ka Gimnazija, Beograd
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