2008 Woodie Awards
Just a thought ...
What is a friend?
Ashley D. McGee
LIFESTYLES EDITOR
ladypoeticsoul@aol.com
Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: Lifestyles
- Page 1 of 1
Friends: This word has so many different meanings. Some consider a friend to be someone who they can depend on in times of need. Others believe their friends are the people they spend most of their time with or a new infatuation with physically intimate connections. More recently, the term "friend" has even been reduced to an individual, who very well may be a complete stranger that frequently sends someone messages to his or her Internet profiles.
A recent conversation I had with two of my classmates over the lunch table in The Market started the wheels in my mind to kick into overdrive. Are the people we hang out with in nightclubs, instant message online or casually talk to between classes worthy of the same title we give those who, unquestionably, love and support us?
We are constantly encouraged to make new acquaintances while in college, but that doesn't mean that every person we go to mall with, or spend ample time with in a friend's dorm room, is a friend.
Though those whom I have given the title as my "best friends" have been in my life for almost 10 years, and are so intimately tied to me they can be counted on one hand, there are a few people I have met in my young adult life that I consider to be a true friend.
People who have a positive impact on your personality, who lift you up when you are falling, who are by your side through the good and the bad no matter what, and encourage you to accomplish your goals, are not only your friends, but they are borderline family. It is so easy to let negative people in our lives and sometimes quite difficult to get them out. We allow people who are nothing more than poisonous to play important roles in our day-to-day lives when they should, honestly, be nothing more but stepping stones to the next chapter in the book of our lives.
Temporary acquaintances who are turn out to be malicious are not completely to blame for the pain they may cause an individual. Don't blame the guy who slept with you after only knowing you for a week for not calling you anymore; he didn't make you do it. The guy who hooked up with your girlfriend while you working those long nights at your part-time job is not totally to blame; you hardly knew him when you decided it was okay to leave him alone with her.
Knowing who you really are, or at least knowing who you want to be, is one of the best ways to determine what type of person you need to associate yourself with.
A recent conversation I had with two of my classmates over the lunch table in The Market started the wheels in my mind to kick into overdrive. Are the people we hang out with in nightclubs, instant message online or casually talk to between classes worthy of the same title we give those who, unquestionably, love and support us?
We are constantly encouraged to make new acquaintances while in college, but that doesn't mean that every person we go to mall with, or spend ample time with in a friend's dorm room, is a friend.
Though those whom I have given the title as my "best friends" have been in my life for almost 10 years, and are so intimately tied to me they can be counted on one hand, there are a few people I have met in my young adult life that I consider to be a true friend.
People who have a positive impact on your personality, who lift you up when you are falling, who are by your side through the good and the bad no matter what, and encourage you to accomplish your goals, are not only your friends, but they are borderline family. It is so easy to let negative people in our lives and sometimes quite difficult to get them out. We allow people who are nothing more than poisonous to play important roles in our day-to-day lives when they should, honestly, be nothing more but stepping stones to the next chapter in the book of our lives.
Temporary acquaintances who are turn out to be malicious are not completely to blame for the pain they may cause an individual. Don't blame the guy who slept with you after only knowing you for a week for not calling you anymore; he didn't make you do it. The guy who hooked up with your girlfriend while you working those long nights at your part-time job is not totally to blame; you hardly knew him when you decided it was okay to leave him alone with her.
Knowing who you really are, or at least knowing who you want to be, is one of the best ways to determine what type of person you need to associate yourself with.
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