RSVP Parties Can Test Your Friendships

Let me ask you something guys. How closely-knit are your friendships? Are your friends important to you? Conversely, are you that important to your friends?

You see when I get invited to parties – whether that would be as small as house tambayan parties, two-bottle drinks at Bugsys or something big such as birthdays, weddings and the like – I make sure that I would be able to attend it no matter what. The reason why you should always attend if you are invited is because your friend has considered you special enough to think about including you in the guest list. In return for that, you should feel elated for being invited and appreciate it by making sure to attend on time on the day itself and bring some goodies or gifts for your friend who is hosting the party.

So why am I saying all these?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always attended 95% of the parties I get invited to. The 5% wherein I could not attend are due to valid reasons. It could possibly be that I’m sick, I’m out-of-town, I made other appointments and received the invite a little short notice, or there’s a conflict with a special someone’s birthday or anniversary. Bottom line? No matter how big or small, If I’m invited, I’ll do my best to be there.

Now last month, I threw a small party. And what disappointed me was that, except for my two best friends, those who I thought were my closest friends and who I invited to the party as sort of VIPs were not able to make it. On the contrary, those who I thought were not really that close to me, took the time to cancel or move their other appointments, just to make it to the party. So now I’m confused – who again are my real friends?

What’s even worse is when those who you invited tell you lousy excuses why they couldn’t make it. A perfect example? Friend #1 doesn’t want to come because Friend #2 is not going. Sorry to say this, but isn’t that lame?

The thing is, for the person who organized or hosted the party, it’s really frustrating if your most important guests and friends don’t show up. That happened to me and I really felt bad about it. It seemed I was not that important to them. After all, I do think that this quotation is true:

“The best gift you could ever give someone is your time. Because you’re giving them something that you’ll never get back.”

It took me a while to forgive, but my friends apologized and made it up to me in other ways so I forgave them eventually. Time heals everything and since New Year is just around the corner, I need to forget the past and move on in order to have a fresh start for 2014.

Follow Chris on Twitter: @pinoyguyguide