The Meaning Of Being A Friend Essays Example

Think about all the people that have crossed paths with any given person during their life and those who are still yet to cross. The number is most likely to be thousands. Now try to apply the concept of being friends to everyone who truly deserves it. There will possibly be a couple dozens. Friendship is one of the most common relationships of the human beings. Some friendships start a few minutes after getting to know each other, and some take years to build. There are different categories of friendship based on importance and feelings.
The first category is the acquaintance or someone “known in passing”. That means that the person may see and interact with the individual on an occasional or even regular basis, but they are not close friends. Usually these friendships start at school, workplace, and in the buses while people are travelling. Someone may know a little about the person, or have knowledge about something in specific, but that is it. Facebook tends to have many examples of acquaintances. Everyone can be friends on this social network such as parents, coworkers, classmates, total strangers, and even the neighborhood’s beauty salon. There is a phrase that says that, “real friends can be counted on one hand.” truly, people use an extended version of this saying. There will be people left behind, but sometimes it is for the best.
The second category is casual friends or school friends that are built during school or extracurricular activities. These friendships involve people who make an effort to communicate at school or on different projects. An example is the student government, a group of students in the school who are elected to help plan activities and to organize and manage life at school for others. School or former friends share games, lessons, work in the math projects, and share happiness or anger. They talk about topics like movies, favorite things, or make jokes. Someone meets and sees them all the time but not as close as best friends. It is an enjoyable friendship, but rarely continues throughout the years.
The third category is the best friends that are also referred to as buddies. They are very important people since they are close and can be trusted because they know secrets that others do not. Some best friends are like a family because they are always there during the most important moments. They are reliable, trustworthy, dependable, understanding, encouraging, and they help out without expecting anything in return. Best friends are always there to provide support and take care of each other when they are sick for instance. They forgive with generosity and do not judge each other based on mistakes or indiscretions.
The fourth category is the bad friends; this category consists of the users and abusers. They are easy to recognize, because they are only there when they need something, but never help when a person needs it. These people are selfish, jealous, often liars, they demand too much, pretend to be there for you, and break promises. They enjoy and laugh at the failures of others. Bad friends are opportunistic, taking advantage of others because they have assets like a car, money, or want to get close to the person’s friends. They are self-centered, always talking about themselves and not caring about the others.
It is the person’s choice to decide whether or not a friendship is worthwhile. There is no wealth more valuable than a good friend for sure. A loyal friend is someone that holds true through their word, the person that responds faithfully to the commitments that bring friendship. Good friends do not criticize, murmur, nor betray a person’s confidence, and are always honest. True friends are those who defend the interests and good names of their friends. One should seek true friendship rather than engage in unfruitful friendships, which later bring shame and regret upon them. It is important for one to carry out a critical assessment of fellows so that he or she can determine those who are fitting to be true friends and they who are but imposters. Should one find an element of pretense in another considerable s a friend, then he or she should avoid the company of that person as much as possible.