How I Discovered Loyalty and Why It Matters So Much Today
I’ve been wanting to write this post on Medium for quite a while now but have only begun to do it now. To give some context, loyalty is one of my most if not the most significant value I hold in my life today. It wasn’t born out of anything complex but rather stemmed from a simple moment in my life that has stuck with me forever. Heres the story on how I discovered “loyalty” and why I believe it matters so much to today and for relationships.
The Moment of Discovery
For those of you who are not aware, I have two sisters in my family with me being the youngest. When I was in third grade, — its funny when I look back on it but I used to take my sisters assignments that she did in her years so I would have a leg up when I have to do the same homework. In other words, if I was going to third grade, I would take some of the assignments my sis had so that I had somewhat of an advantage. Fast forward a few months — one day while I went home, I noticed that my sis had an art assignment that she hanged up on the wall. My middle sister is four years older than me, so during this time she was in grade seven. Now the thing about this assignment was that it was called a “T-Shirt Assignment.” Basically what it was was you had a blank T-Shirt (not an actual T-Shirt but a paper cut-out) which you could color in and draw whatever on it to describe who you are and what your interests are. It was just an innocent little grade seven art project that probably got a lot of my sister’s classmates thinking about themselves and whatnot. However, when I stared up into my sisters t-shirt, I saw that below on the belly-side of the shirt she wrote three wishes that she wanted in her life. I think one of them was getting a lovely home, another was having a well-paying job (maybe, I don’t remember) but the one that stuck with me the most and sparked my concept of loyalty was — “I wish I could have loyal friends.” At the time, I didn’t know what loyal or loyalty meant. Hell, I was a kid back then and that word with my lack of context, seemed difficult to understand. However, for some reason I had an innate understanding of the word loyal because I’m someone who’s pretty good at guessing what words mean. Even though I was in third grade I knew that good relationships were long-lasting and formidable. I knew that friendships were good if people had each others backs. So I knew that loyalty had those same meanings and were along similar lines. Although I pretty much just looked at that T-Shirt, this seemingly insignificant moment changed my life forever in terms of my values and convictions.
Today I feel like the word loyalty has lost its way and its core meaning. Social media and the fast-paced lifestyle the internet has induced to all of us has made us facetious to relationships and I only know a small number of people who truly have reliable friends. Loyalty is such an underrated quality in today’s world. Its a hidden gem, and its power is unbeknownst to many. We all want someone in our lives that will stick by our side forever, if not for a long time. We all want a friend or anyone that will have that loyalty and give us the courage or support we need to carry on with life. Loyalty means so much. It means sticking with a friend even through the hard times, helping them out whenever and unconditionally.
If you ever have a friend or relative that has stuck with you for several years even when others haven’t, they may have that quality. The quality of loyalty. Cherish it and appreciate it because not a lot of people have it.
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*If you liked this post please give it a heart. This is one of my first long posts on Medium and I am excited to write more for anyone that wants to read. Thank you for your attention. -M
