Ana And Her Friends

Ana was a very popular girl at school. She was clever and fun and got on well with everyone. It was no accident that Ana was so popular. From an early age, she made an effort to be kind and friendly to everyone. She invited the whole class to her birthday party, and from time to time she would give presents to everybody. She was such a busy girl, with so many friends, that she hardly got a chance to spend time with individual friends. However, she felt very lucky; no other girl had so many friends at school and in the neighborhood.

But everything changed on National Friendship Day. On that day, at school, everyone was having a great time, drawing, painting, and giving gifts. That day in class everyone had to make three presents to give to their three best friends. Ana enjoyed the task of choosing three from amongst all the dozens of her friends.

However, when all the presents had been made and shared out among classmates, Ana was the only one who had not received a present! She felt terrible and spent hours crying. How could it be possible? So much effort to make so many friends, and in the end, no one saw her as their best friend? Everyone came and tried to console her for a while. But each one only stayed for a short time before leaving.

This was exactly what Ana had done so many times to others.

She realized that she was a good companion and acquaintance, but she had not been a true friend to anyone. She had tried not to argue with anyone, she had tried to pay attention to everyone, but now she had found out that that was not enough to create true friendship.

When she got home that night, created quite a puddle with her tears, and Ana asked her mother where she could find true friends.

"Ana, my dear," answered her mother, "you cannot buy friends with a smile or a few good words. If you really want true friends, you will have to give them real-time affection. For a true friend, you must always be available, in good times and bad".

"But I want to be everybody's friend! I need to share my time with everyone!", Ana protested.

"My dear, you're a lovely girl," said her mother, "but you can't be a close friend to everybody. There just isn't enough time to be available for everyone, so it's only possible to have a few true friends. The others will be playmates or acquaintances, but they won't be close friends".

Hearing this, Ana decided to change her ways so that she could finally have some true friends. That night, in bed, she thought about what she could do to get them.

She thought about her mother. Her mother was always willing to help her, she put up with all of Ana's dislikes and problems, she always forgave her, she loved her a great deal...

That was what makes friends!