I just thought of an apt description for all the friendships I'm being in and this struck my mind while i was brushing my teeth late late night and it made me understand what I have been believing and doing in life is actually all wrong.

Here goes:
A 4x100m relay run is just like friendship, all runners in a team need to work together and run each of their 100m well enough to win the race. Once a member lags behind, the other member must race doubly hard to chase up the other team.
I have always thought that only the last runner (which I'm usually positioned in a relay) will decide the winning as he/she is the closest to the finish line and is the key factor. The same in a friendship, I always think that being the last runner, I have to take initiatives. But people usually take the last runner for granted and said it was team effort that made them win. I just want to ask if it is fair to the last runner if the rest does not put in equal effort?
In a steady friendship, all friends must make the effort to keep the friendship afloat and no one should lag behind and make another friend catch up. Some might not mind doing catching up but sooner or later it becomes tiresome and meaningless if the rest remains lagging and not putting the effort to win at all. Is it fair to the rest?

I see this lagging a lot in friendships and not just only mine. That's why those who don't know how to cherish good friends around them don't deserve to be treated so well. Remember it's a give and take thing like passing on the baton in a relay run. Don't just take and don't give or give and don't take. It feels bad to have nothing to take even if one doesn't mind giving. It all boils down to how much this friend weighs in you heart...