“Friends are over-rated”, “Nobody needs anybody”, and “You can’t trust anyone but yourself”, that is what I have heard a lot throughout my life at different stages and times. This imparted wisdom came from several sources, most notably my father, but I have taken a different view, I believe in friends. I see life as a bowl of salad. Plain, tasteless, and uninteresting, it is not very good. To me a solitary life is missing something, and subsequently the salad as well. That something is friendship. Friends act as a nice dressing to the otherwise dreary and boring salad that is life. They add the color and flavor that makes life so much more interesting.
Not just any friend can fill this important role. It is a good friend; someone who will not try to screw you over or leave you hanging is an essential part of the human experience, to have people you can trust, that can help and take care of you. Only that kind of friend can fill that void in your life. Just knowing that someone has your back, it is truly liberating feeling. This has been proved through its prevalence in my life. Whether it is being able to never have to walk home because there is always a friend willing and able to give you a ride home, that if you need help there is always a friend who can come to your aid. This has come into play for me before in a few situations; the one that comes immediately to thought for me is when I bought my last phone. I had at that time been spending days trying to figure out what new phone I should get, and more importantly to me, costs the least amount of money. My searches appeared to be fruitless, but luckily for me a friend was available to help me. To hear him say “I got you” was nice. It let me stop worrying about whether I was going to screw up on this purchase. He sold me a phone he had for less than it was worth because I was his friend. This reminded me that friends are there for you. Of course this works both ways since I have been there for my friends as well.
To help another friend is always a nice feeling, helping anyone out in any way is a good feeling for that matter. An instance for me where I helped out a friend of mine came when a friend and I were both counseling aids first period. Other than the passes to be delivered, it was a study hall. On one day he was working on some homework that was due the next period and I was working on some homework due later in the day. However this was made difficult by the number of passes being given to us to distribute throughout the period. Noticing that the homework he was doing would easily take the whole period to finish, I decided to let him work on his homework and that I would deliver all of the passes that day. So I told him “Don’t worry, I got this”. It was not very fun, but since I was helping a friend I felt good. He thanked me for what I did and I was proud of myself at that moment. Not needing to be given the recognition but being glad to have it anyway. Being there for someone is a good feeling, whether you are on the receiving or giving end of the help. It makes everyone happier to some extent. Those experiences, among others I have experienced, are why I believe in friends.