Appreciation.

Today, I learned a valuable lesson.
All because a long lost amigo of mine hit me up on AIM.
He told me that I changed his life.
And I believe it.
I've known him for about 3 years, and throughout all these years, I've helped him with so much.
Guided him towards the "right direction"; showed him the difference betweem "right" and "wrong"; opened up his mind on how to solve certain situations, making him think more about the consequences, and what good it would actually do for him; if there was no good, there was no point; I helped him learn from his own mistakes and how to prevent them. I encouraged him and convinced him to keep his head up, even when events were happening in his life that made him just wanna fall and never get back up..
Basically, all I did was be a good friend to him; give him a friendship that no one ever did and still never has; became a person he could always come to for anything; trustworthy, whatever we talked about remained our conversation; a shoulder to cry on, if he ever chose to cry.
I became a very important person in his life.
He was willing to do anything for me.
His best friend, and he loved me for just being that.
For just being there.
His angel, as he calls me, for picking him up whenever he fell.
For being his optimistic thinker while his thoughts were only pessimistic.
Every day conversations..
And then we lost contact.
Not intentionally.
Just because.
I think the last time I heard from him was weeks.. even months ago.
And then he hit me up today.
Like he had never left.
We started catching up on eachother's lives and..
I'm proud of him.
He's become the person that's opposite of what he used to be.
My lessons taught were his lesons learned and it showed.
He reminded me that he is still willing to do anything for me, even though I won't allow it.
But he showed me something else, too..
Informed me of something I needed to know..
I learned that I was appreciated.
And it made me feel good.
Real good.
And it made me ask myself:

"I have people that actually appreciate me, so why am I stressing people that don't?"