About Denises and Caroles

It’s a fact. In one person’s friendship circle there are various and varied friends. One has preferences and for each situation, a different company. But some people bring the best on you in about every situation.
That is the case of the friends I would like to call /Denise friends/. These people could be described as the ones who open their hearts to a newly known person, just for the sake of the command love one another. Then, after knowing better that stranger, take care of them and let them be part of their own family.
In these sense, they are very similar to the type of friends that I call /Carole friends/.Both open their hearts and houses to strangers with the aim of help, but /Carole friends/ have many more reserves. However, they do have differences.
If one gets home with very exciting news about one’s career and academic stuff, /Carol friends/ don’t really support the news and perspective decisions, because they would be more difficult and intense. /Denise friends/ though, say the opposite. “They will be intense, indeed, but everything this one (me, the writer) does is intense. She can take it.”
Do you get it? Whoever needs to define the difficulty is the subject (me, again, the writer) who is only asking for incentive.
In another situation, when a /Denise friend/ finds out she has a serious disease, she decides to fight for her life. By fighting I mean with courage and hope (lots of it). She gathers strength to carry on. She trusts in whenever her doctor says, without asking too much. After all, she is not a doctor!! She decides to reserve to herself all the red tape and money wise details and don’t worry anybody; and she looks amazing!!
A /Carol friend/ worries about the billing, the procedures – not even knowing the proper names for those - the recovery, the life after C… She demands to know about everything even though this knowledge won’t solve any of that. Moreover, she forgets to deal with her own business.
If I would categorize the people in my life in only two categories, it would be easy - that is not what happens. You see, friends come into our lives bringing their own marks and history, which will make part of our life too.
We can choose which of those marks we want to perpetuate in ours. In the end of the day, what really counts are the good words you have heard, the ones you can actually smile at.
My /Carole friends/ and /Denise friends/ are actually called Roberta, Christian, Matheus, Claudia, Beatriz, Diogo, Ricardo, Laudia, Paulo, Joseph, Nassin, Patrick…