Stubborn Is As ...

"Am I stubborn?" she asked.

"Yes, in the sense that you know your own mind and you are confident about the decisions you make. Am I stubborn?" her friend asked in return.

"Yeah, duh!" was the reply.

And then they said simultaneously, "I guess that's why we are best friends!"

It's all too true. I would never dream of having a best friend who would agree to everything I say and have no backbone of her own. I want someone I can bounce my crazy ideas to and who is not afraid to give feedback to me in an objective manner. And when it comes to advice, I want the freedom to share with her what I think and trust that whatever decision she makes at the end of the day, it is her own choice and she would take full responsibility for it, and not blame me if something goes awry.

Also, a person with a mind of her own does not usually have a victim's mentality. She loves herself too much to continually put herself in harm's way or remain stuck in the pits of misery. She would know the right thing to do and will eventually get back on track if she was confused for a while. I think it all boils down to how much confidence you have upon your own thoughts and decisions to stick to doing what you know is best for you.

For all our similarities, bezzie and I are different in many ways, too. We are both very gut-feel people - we would do things that we strongly believe in. However, she is an avid go-getter while I prefer to take calculated risks.

"Go, go, go, do this thing already!" she would say.

"No can do. I'll wait it out first till I have more data before I make my decision," I would say.

And the thing is, despite our different approaches to life, things do work out for the best for us. It's like there's no one right or wrong way - just different ways of doing things. Over the years, we learned to agree to disagree and to support each other in our decisions.

And through this, we learn from each other. Hopefully, we'd both end up to be more balanced and sweeter as the days go by. This is one reason why you so need to choose your best friend carefully. Over the years, you do end up looking and behaving a little like each other. So better get someone you love and respect as a bezzie. Otherwise, you'll turn into someone you'd hate to live with. If that's not hell on earth, I don't know what is.



Credits: Stubborn birdies pic by Pongo