A Facebook friend. Friend you, friend me. Work friends. School friends. Friends and family sales.

Every year, I struggle with the definition especially since technology and services have diluted the definition.

“But we are friends,” someone would say to me.

I balk immediately, because the feeling is not mutual. Perhaps it’s due that I never switched contexts from acquaintance to friend. Perhaps it’s because I lost trust. Perhaps it’s because…worst of all, I lost respect.

Then there are my favorite people. The people that I carefully label friends. They are the people who I do not feel judged with. They are the people that I would travel thousands of miles to see when I am halfway across the world. They are the people that I can and trust to ask to help me up when I fall.

What are friends when it’s not mutual as I once wrote.