Lots to Learn

Being a friend is much more than just good times and laughs. Being a good friend is helping someone when they are in need or being there for someone during their hardest times. Friends have lots to teach us and they help us learn things about ourselves. I know there have been times when I needed a friend to help me and I always try to be there for my friends when they are in similar situations. I have one friend in particular that I can count on almost always. (I’m going to refrain from using his name, although I believe he wouldn’t have a problem with it.) I like to think that he can count on me just as much. This friend has helped me in many ways, from giving me rides to and from places, listening to me when I need someone to talk to, and even going to awkward family reunions with me. He really has become part of my family and sometimes I think my family likes him more than they like me. He has helped me in many ways, many times, but perhaps the most notable time he has helped me was when I felt as though I was without any friends. It is no secret that I have struggled with loneliness, depression, and anxiety. There have been times in my life when I feel that I am at such an extreme low that I will never recover. This friend of mine has always been there through these times, no matter how low. Sometimes I just need a person to vent to or complain about something to. I can always count on this person to listen to me, let me tell my stories to, and offer advice back to me when I need it. Most importantly, I know I can trust this person with my problems and my secrets. I think it is very hard to find someone that you can trust with your problems and your secrets. I know that it’s hard for me to keep secrets and keep people’s problems private. That is why I value this friend so much. I think it takes great patience to listen to someone like me and all of my problems. It also takes incredible discipline to keep someone’s secrets. You really have to care about someone and respect them if you are able to keep their secrets. This is yet another reason why I cherish this friend so much, I know that he must care about and respect me a lot. This friend of mine has taught me how to be more patient, how to be more respectful and more responsible as well as teaching me what it truly means to be a good friend.

I’ve always known that I need to be there for this friend as much as I can be because they’ve done so much for me. Of course, helping them with small tasks will never be a problem, but to me that is not enough. To be a good friend, you have to be there during critical moments and you have to make a serious difference in that person’s life. I think there are a couple key things that I have helped this friend with. The first one being all the times I’ve helped them when they struggle in classes. I normally have no patience for people that struggle in classes, I like to think that I am sympathetic, but when it comes to education, I lose most of my sympathy. Seeing a friend struggle is a whole different story. When I see a good friend of mine struggling in school it really makes me want to help them. Sometimes people don’t want help, but if a friend of mine does want help, they can count on me. This particular friend of mine used to struggle a lot in math. I’ve always been pretty good in math classes, even most of the advanced ones. I knew when my friend was struggling in math that I had to help them out. It took some time, but eventually he passed his math class and in more recent years, he has been doing really well in math. The other thing that I think I have really helped this friend with is being more open minded and forgiving. This is not me saying that I think this person was ever a truly rude or bad person, but we all have things we can work on. Sometimes the way you are raised can shape how you think and behave, I think this was the case for this person. I don’t think that this person’s parents are terrible people who are cold and unforgiving, but they are very opinionated people. I tried to help shed some light on the other side of things for this person. He was going through some tough times with his girlfriend and he was having a hard time forgiving her. I helped him to see that sometimes things are quite what we think they are, I tried to show him that it wasn’t all too bad and that people deserve to be forgiven. I have definitely seen a change in this person ever since this incident. Although it is not a huge, dramatic change, when you spend enough time with someone you can tell when they’ve changed. I am very proud of the spot this person is in now and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happier.

I am very glad to have a friend as great as this person. I think everyone deserves a friend like this that they can laugh with, but also confide in. This friend has taught me so much about others but also about myself. I’ve learned to be more patient and responsible, but I’ve also learned what a true friend looks like. Without this friend of mine I don’t think I would be the person that I am today.

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