"just friends"?

I was talking to one of my friend and this interesting topic came up. The essence of the discussion that led me to this topic was that friendship and relationship got to be two different things. I will not argue too much on that aspect. The aspect I had problem with was on transitioning between these two stages. She believed that if you are friends, you got to be friends for whole of the life, no room for relationship. Now I do not want to take a stand on this, may be life would have been simpler if rule of life would have been so clearly defined and taught to all of us. The point is life isn’t that straight forward or black and white, there is plenty of gray areas and that leaves a lot on mortals like me and you to make or mess it.

Personally I do not see an issue in friends seriously falling for each other; it makes amazing sense to me. I guess you should be more than lucky if you can find a companion in your best friend. It helps if you have known and understand each other truly because that’s what is crucial for a successful relationship. I believe you will agree that a friend is certainly preferred over a stranger.

Now let’s talk about friends turning in to lovers, navigating rough weather of transition and successfully transforming the friendship in to a relationship or messing up a great friendship (whichever the fate turns out to be). Transition from friendship to a potential relationship is a tricky one and unless otherwise you have a rule book on Do’s and Don’ts in life like my friend, you are very likely to find yourself on this juncture in your life. There is a stage between friendship and relationship which is above friendship but below commitment level and that’s the most vulnerable time of this transition. It’s a juncture when one needs to quickly switch gear and rise to the occasion. At this point one needs to be crystal clear on where the whole thing is heading, if you can commit to it, fine, go ahead. However if any one of you get to this stage with a hazy reading of situation, you are heading for a trouble. It will eventually lead you to destination nowhere and you will end up messing a great friendship. Sort things out as soon as you can because from here when things fall, it’s a rapid southward nosedive.

Oops…lecturing on relationships isn’t my cup of tea and I guess I just got too carried away with my thoughts, thanks for putting up with the last few lines. No lectures, ‘am not qualified for that ;-), Cheers,