Friendship

Hey Friends! I have never really attempted to put a blog together before, but I thought it sounded like fun. I have had a particular word in my head the past few days that means a lot to me; especially in Tagalog. The word is Kaibigan pronounced Kie-Bee-Gan. The Gan sounds more like the gain at the end of again. Anyways, the word means friend. And I seem to have the most amazing friends in the world, old friends, new friends, friends that climb on rocks, and everywhere in between. I am really grateful for all of them, and really feel blessed because of the new friends I have made this semester! And especially for my family members, who have been my best friends my whole life. (And of course TJ and Brendin, they are family too). Learning Tagalog and being with the Filipino people taught me a really simple but important message (this is really the part that I have been thinking about recently) about friendship. The word kaibigan stems from the root word ibig, which means love. That is the real meaning of friendship, even though I have no idea how to break down the word friend but the dictionary has got it down pretty well:

Word History: A friend is a lover, literally. The relationship between Latin amcus "friend" and am "I love" is clear, as is the relationship between Greek philos "friend" andphile "I love." In English, though, we have to go back a millennium before we see the verb related to friend. At that time, frond, the Old English word for "friend," was simply the present participle of the verb fron, "to love." The Germanic root behind this verb is *fr-, which meant "to like, love, be friendly to." Closely linked to these concepts is that of "peace," and in fact Germanic made a noun from this root, *frithu-, meaning exactly that. Ultimately descended from this noun are the personal names Frederick, "peaceful ruler," and Siegfried, "victory peace." The root also shows up in the name of the Germanic deity Frigg, the goddess of love, who lives on today in the word Friday, "day of Frigg," from an ancient translation of Latin Veneris dis, "day of Venus."

You learn something new everyday! I certainly do love my friends. I know my grammar is not great but this is something that has helped bring to light the real meaning of friendship for me. :)