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English Composition II

Illustration Essay

ILLUSTRATION OF A TRUE FRIEND

Friends complete our lives in so many ways that we could never feel while alone.

Friendship starts almost anywhere and needs much effort to cultivate to bear more good

outcomes, something most people are not interested in engaging. True friends, however, are so

rare and scarce to come across. When we meet with one, our body intuition, consciousness, and

hidden scars, and personal self never hinder us from showing ourselves in their presence because

they accept us for who we are. True friends embark on the journey of walking with us every step

of our lives, and finally, they always end up as family and people we hold so dearly to us. To

consider someone my loyal friend, they must be dependable, have empathy, be loyal, be good

listeners, and be fun to be around.

I felt lucky enough to have one true friend who has had my back many times that I could

not count on in my life. I met Justus, a black-eyed Turkish guy, while I was on vacation to

Zanzibar.

On that specific day, I had my purple short balloon dress decorated all through with butterfly-like

patterns that were white, making me look especially eye-catching in a local Zanzibarian hospital-

he loves the dress till today. That morning, a request had been aired requesting the public to

donate blood to a family that had survived an accident the previous night, especially people who

had O+ blood. I heeded the call and decided to visit the hospital just ten minutes from the resort.

Justus, 6'4 feet tall, white-skinned, and masculine, was among the doctors on duty that day and

was busy directing everyone which department they were to go to and what was required of
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them. As I approached him, his broad Turkish accent is what you dissert him with from the first

time, made me look him in the eye and shock on me he was also gazing back on me. The

moment to date remains awkward because it leaves me smiling and laughing how we gazed at

each other for four minutes as if time had finally elapsed. Rogers and Adam in their study on

how interactions between friends could leave either a positive impact or negative one in our lives

(1), is best put in place when I remember that specific moment. I smiled shyly at him and headed

to the donating room, where he came later before I could finish with the procedure.

Justus is a humorous guy who made me laugh so hard by mentioning that "if he were a vampire

then, that would be the first hospital he would have to visit because my O+ blood was believed to

be sweeter."

Nine years later, everything else progressed to our deep friendship and dependency level. He has

remained that big brother that I never had in my life.

At one time, my father had been highly sick of throat cancer. It was my hardest challenge

to ever face in my entire life, seeing the man who had raised me single-handed suffering while

having nothing I could do for him. I remember Justus calling me for coffee immediately after he

landed from Egypt from three-month research they had been conducting. When I arrived, I could

not look him in the eye as I had not told him before traveling on my dad's health condition. I later

told him after his frequent curious questions. Justus is a good listener who is never judgemental

of me on everything, just as Rick and Christopher mention it in their 2010 study on characters of

good friends (1). When I finished telling him about my dad's current medical situation, he

assured me that he would reach out to more doctors he knew from India and know the depth of

the cancerous cells before coming up with a treatment plan for him.
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On the bright side, he stood by my side, trying to crack jokes and assuring me that

every cloud passes in its due time. Although my dad later succumbed to cancer a few months

later, Justus was there for me in every way there could be. In one incident, he went up to our

corporation with my forged medical files to explain to my boss that I needed three months off

duty as my condition was deteriorating. I was angry after he told me what he had done but later

realized that I needed a break from it to think things up. Ng and Nikole mentioned in their study

that our friends mirror us in every aspect, as we tend to make friends with those that are

compatible with our inner self (170), and thus, if the situations were to be reversed, I would have

done the same for him.

In conclusion, friendship needs patience to grow as both parties invest their time in it.

Everyone needs someone they can shoulder on in their dark days, as well as a voice to cheer

them up in their success ladder.

Work Cited

Ricks, Christopher. True Friendship: Geoffrey Hill, Anthony Hecht, and Robert Lowell Under

the Sign of Eliot and Pound. Yale University Press, 2010.

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Rogers, Adam A., et al. "Trajectories of positive and negative affect across the transition to

college: The role of daily interactions with parents and friends." Developmental psychology

54.11 (2018): 2181.

Ng, Nikole WK, et al. "How can you make friends if you don't know who you are?" A

qualitative examination of international students' experience informed by the Social Identity

Model of Identity Change." Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology 28.3 (2018):

169-187.