Friends

By: Landon C. Pritchard

 

Making new friends can be hard. If you’re looking to make a new friend, always remember to be yourself. If you see people that do things you don’t normally do, don’t automatically think they won’t be a good friend. They could just be doing something different, maybe for another friend! Lastly, make sure you're becoming friends with people that will lead you in the right direction, because when you’re with friends, they influence you.

 

Sometimes, making new friends isn’t even the hardest part, maintaining them is. If you’re always doing things your way, how do you think your friend feels?  Sometimes you should compromise or do something they want to do, even if you have it, because that’s what friends do. Remember not to make everything about you, you, you. Your friend wants to have fun with you, and you can’t do that when your only friend is yourself.

 

Another thing you should look for when looking for a new friend is what type of influence they will have on you. If they have a negative influence on you, that is not a friend you want to spend time with. They will get you into trouble with small things at first, but eventually they will lead you to a life of drugs and violence. Things like you can do it, good job, and congratulations are all signs of a positive influence, or positive peer pressure. I know I would rather have someone saying congrats then offering me drugs.

 

Now we’re on to the negative influence, or negative peer pressure. As said before, they are bad friends and will potentially ruin your life. People with a bad influence on you will offer you drugs, and ask you to tag along on a vandalism spree. You accept the offer, and spend twenty years in prison, all because of your friends. If you see people doing anything you wouldn’t do yourself, or in front of your family, walk away and don’t talk to them.

 

Now I’m going to talk about the six pillars of character. To me, the most important of the pillars is respect. If you can respect a friend, and they respect you, you have a great friendship. Respect is something all people in general should learn to have for each other. Respect is like glue; if you have it, it will make a friendship stick together.

 

Now I will talk about a person’s character in friendship, and what to do if the friendship doesn’t work out. Your character is like your job. If you want a good job, you need to have a good character. Your character is basically who you are, how you act, and how people see you. Now, we’ll get to the other side of friendship. If you know for a fact that you don’t want to be friends with someone anymore, do it politely. Just talk to them about it, and maybe they will agree. If you don’t want to confront them, subtly start hanging out with them less and less, and the breakup will work out on its own, without a fight.