Friends

Friends are those who support you no matter what, whether you are going through a hard time or a good time. Between them, there is no room for jealously and inferiority, and all that matters is the time they spend together.

When I first arrived in Canada, I hardly knew any people around me as I was not very confident about my language, so I had a fear of speaking in front of people which was holding me behind to make friends here. But as the years went by and I worked in different environments, I realized that for making friends language should not come in the way of friendship.

Here, I would like to share a real incident that helped me find a lifelong buddy. Whenever I went to the supermarket to buy groceries or a coffee shop, the person who took my order always made fun of me in front of other customers even though they were from my native country. They tried to show me that they knew better. One day I recall a time when my credit card was not working and there was a big lineup behind me, and they were all getting late just because I did not know how to tap my credit card as I forgot to keep the chip side of card on machine. I did not know how to pay for my order and that same person started yelling at me and at the same time one girl came from the back of the store and started asking me in a very polite way not to panic. She said, “I can help you here. please let me know what’s what is wrong.” Then she took over the counter and asked me to try again and made a request to other customers to stay calm. She did not make fun of me and instead, she smiled and said that she went through the same incident when she was in college and started learning new things.

After this I was still there walking to the bus stop and she was already there waiting for the bus, so I thanked her in person and she further shared with me many such stories as we both got on the same bus. We talked about many different things and exchanged our phone numbers. We met every weekend for games, parties, and dinner at each other’s places. Sometimes we also went shopping and to church for prayers and since then we became best friends in spite of our different cultures and languages. We can understand and help each other.

Hence, I got my best friend in Canada who encourages, supports, and guides me when I need her.