This I Believe
During junior high I was obsessed with what people thought about me. It was very important to me that I had a lot of friends, and I would only sit with the “cool” kids at lunch. I always thought that the most important part of school was being in the right crowd. As a result, not only were my grades not up to par, but also I wasn’t very happy. I now know that the quantity of friends is not more important than the quality. I believe that having a couple of really close friends is more gratifying than having lots of casual friends.
After I made the switch from junior high to high school, I did keep some of the same friends, but not very many. We were all split up into different classes and never saw each other. I then realized that those friends weren’t that important to me if we didn’t even keep in touch. High school is like a test to see who your true friends are. I went from having what I considered twenty best friends down to about eight. Almost every person goes through a change in high school whether it be physical or mental
Freshman year was when I came to this realization. At that time I still wanted to sit at that “cool” lunch table. All I remember from those years were cat fights with all the girls at that table. We rarely ever got along, and by the end of the year the table was split in half. Starting sophomore year I knew I was going to find a different table to sit at. I knew who my true friends were, and I didn’t care how many friends I had. My table now is just my close friends. It’s not as crowded or as loud. There isn’t any arguments about assigned seats, and there hasn’t been a fight all year.
I am now only close with the friends that stayed with me through thick and thin. I had gotten into a lot of trouble, and the friends that didn’t bail out on me are now my best friends. There was one incident where my friends and I got into some legal trouble and only one girl went down with me out of three. I knew that I was still filtering the ones that I wanted to have in my life. I understand why some of my friends didn’t want to be as close to me, because of the stuff I did, but the ones that did helped me through it. From 7th grade to senior year, I went from having a lot of what I considered best friends, down to four friends I can always count on.
“Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”-said Eleanor Roosevelt. I had to know who I was before I could realize what was important to me. My mom says that going from high school to college is the same scenario. You don’t keep in touch with all of your friends once they’ve all moved away, but I know that I will keep in touch with my close friends. Not only do I hangout with all of my friends now, I don’t find myself stuck in the middle of cat fights. I can always depend on them to listen, and I know they will be there to help. I would rather have three best friends who I can count on rather than lots of casual friends any day… This I believe.