Friends are among those few people who accept us the way we are and for what we are, never trying to change us.
When we are children, our friends are those we like to play with; when we are teens, our friends are those we share our feelings, plans and dreams with and those we explore the world with; and when we are adults, our friends are those we share our troubles and our experiences with. On the journey along the path of life, our friends are the people who are by our side, sharing their lives with us, understanding and supporting us.
There are some friends who will remain friends forever and some who will be friends for a shorter time; some who will share everything with us and some who will only share a few things. But whichever the case may be, friends will always be special.
Although no one likes to be a Billy-no-mates, it’s not always easy to make friends because when we ask someone to be our friend, we are not just asking them to hang out with us, but also to like us, with our merits as well as with our flaws, because a friend is also an accomplice, a peson who is by your side no matter what.
But in order to have friends you must be a friend, and this implies responsibility, understanding, reliability, and care. It implies the responsibility to be by your friend’s side no matter what, to understand, accept and like their flaws, to support and help your friends even when they’re doing somethng that’s not exactly right.
Friends are particularly important to teens; at an age when they feel the need to break away from their parents and gain independence, they spend more time with their peers than with their parents, because with their peers adolescents get the chance to exchange views and share experiences, and so broaden their horizons and enrich their lives. They get the chance to experiment and to get ready for their future life as adults.