"Encountering a good friend can be quite difficult in the contemporary lives of us teenagers. We experience an immense amount of worries and problems throughout the day; that being a good friend is one of our last priorities.
I, myself, was once baffled by what the definition of a "good" friend was, until I discovered a single step that if taken would make you the greatest friend there is.
Willingness.
That is all it takes in order to be considered a good friend. If we lack will, there is a diminutive chance of us being able to be a good friend. Willingness must come from within.
Listening is the most essential part of a friendship, we must be willing to stay for long hours listening to what our friends have to say, even if it's not the most exciting thing in the world to hear. Listening to our friend makes them feel important, special, wanted. It also allows them to exhale their problems and worries, and not keep them all bottled up. Although listening makes up most of what a good friend is there are also other things that form a good friend.
The will to sacrifice for our friend will also take us a step closer to being a good friend.For instance, you planned your entire night, but as you're about to leave to enjoy your Saturday night with your boyfriend/girlfriend, your best friend calls you right when you're stepping out, hysterical because something bad had occurred in their life. You must be willing to sacrifice your Saturday night you had so carefully planned out and go to your friend's house and converse with them about the situation and try to console them in any way that you can. Doing this demonstrates that we are willing to be there for him/her in their time of need and sacrifice whatever we had planned. We must always be willing to give advice to our friend. For example say your friend is in a situation where they do not know what to do, and so they turn to you for help; you must be willing to think things through with them and try to give them the best advice.
I once experienced something similar to this; I had turned to a friend for advice because I had failed my end of year examination and did not know whether I should notify my parents or not. My "good" friend, instead of trying to help me out and console me, said, "Don't show it to your parents, that's just stupid."
After I took my friend's "great" advice I realized that his advice was the worst to take. My parents received a call from my teacher telling them about the grades I had got, they were extremely unhappy and said if I had told them they would have been a little more understandable. I became aware that the "advice" he had given me was not by a good friend. He was not willing to stay and try to help me out with my problem; he'd rather go out and not have to listen to what I had to say. This is when I discovered the one single step to be a good friend.
The willingness to care is also a big must in being a good friend. If we don't care for our friend then our friend won't care for us and the whole point of we trying to be a good friend will diminish. We must care about how our friend feels and what they are experiencing. Caring is one of the best things we can do, because when our friend is in they're time of need and the whole world seems to be turned against them, we must be the one to care and make them see that it's not over yet. Nobody ever said being a good friend was going to be easy, but if we want to be a good friend then we're willing to listen, sacrifice, give advice and care for our friend, these skills will come in real handy if we really want to be a good friend. In the long run this skills will not only help us to be a good friend but also to be good to ourselves and to others.
In the end practicing this skill will all pay off, and we'll be glad we were willing."
z3oNx, 2007
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