There is a cure that scientists and healthcare providers can’t seem to discover in their labs. It is something that can’t slow aging, but will keep you young. It is something that is essential to the soul.
That something is friendship.
A friendship is a mutual relationship between two people who depend on each other for different needs.
“People with stronger friendship networks feel like there is someone they can turn to,” said Karen A. Roberto, director of the center for gerontology at Virgina Tech.
“Friendship is an undervalued resource,” Roberto said. “They usually share common interests. They trust and support one another.”
The American Sociological Review conducted a survey in 2006, which revealed twenty-five percent of Americans said they have no one to confide in; this number has decreased tremendously since the 1980s.
College is where lifelong friends meet. Dorm rooms, classes and campus organizations are prime areas where these friendships are formed.
Why is it so hard to find a friend who has your best interest at heart?
Jasmine Vanderhorst, a freshman pre-engineering student from New Orleans, gives her description of what is friend means to her.
“A friend is a person you can call at all hours no matter what the situation may be. It is hard to find friendship because you have to be a friend in order to have a friend and most people aren’t willing to go down that two-way street,” Vanderhorst said.
Some are naïve in denying the fact that some people are seasonal friends. They were placed in your life for only one purpose and once that purpose is fulfilled there is no use for the friendship any longer.
True friendship endures the test of time. Learning how to decipher between your real friends and those who happen to come in go with time can typically start as early as grade school or as late as college.
The famous cliché, “birds of a feather flock together,” holds truth. One should take to heed to become friends with people who are on the same page as you and on the same path to success as yourself. You should keep company that can help you define who you are and those who will support you to go out your comfort zone.
Friendship is a test of character that starts at home with your family. Having opportunities to seek friends in class, at work and a variety of other places doesn’t come around as often as we would like it to. People are becoming friends solely for superficial reason.
Friendships shouldn’t define who you are, but uplift the character you desire to be.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12 says, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.”