FRIENDS

WHY ARE THEY SO IMPORTANT?

"Without friends we are lost…." - Jonathon Lkary 1903

'I was over at a friend's house one night. We were just eating junk food and watching TV when there was a knock at the door. Standing there, drenched from the rain was one of our schoolmates, tears running down her face. She asked to come in and sit down.

We let her in and as she began to retell the story of how her mother had hit her and threw her belongings out of her bedroom window, she broke down. We sat with her for ages until she calmed down and invited her to stay the night.


Without us, she would have had nowhere to go and no one to talk to. And she would have been lost.'

Friends come and go throughout our lives. But if we are lucky, we sift through the leavers, find some lifelong friends who will always be there for us.

There are different categories of friends.

To explain this properly, I will use a situation: imagine you are walking down a street and you see a friend, there are roughly five different responses you could give.

1. You smile politely.
2. You smile politely and say hi.
3. You say hi, have a short but meaningless conversation.
4. You give them a hug ask them how they've been and find out what they're up to.
5. You hug them and have a D&M and then invite them out on the weekend.

A great secret to having good relationships with other people is to understand that everyone has their faults, and if someone thinks that they are faultless, then their fault is that they are egotistical.

A good friend is someone that accommodates your faults and vice-versa. They need to put as much into the relationship as you do. You need to be there for each other. A friendship is a two-way thing and if one of the parties has lost interest in the friendship, then it is important to realize either that he/she needs space and a little time, or that not all friendships are destined to work out.

The main thing to remember is have fun. Friendships are for fun times and if it's not fun for you anymore, try to sort out why. Don't give up on someone so easily after all, there must have been a reason you were friends in the first place…

- Kirsty Ridgway