If you’re late to the game, let’s catch you up. I’ve been writing a series on personal values, my first article being about faith and my second about music. This week, I’m looking at friends as a personal value.
When talking about my friends, it’s natural for me to separate them into two general categories: high school friends and college friends. Since each group played a slightly different role in my life, I feel like I should talk about them separately.
Related: Can Music Be A Value?
What about before high school, though? Perhaps we should start there. Before high school, I was that kid who sat quietly in the corner and read books. I had friends, of course, but I’m no longer in touch with any of my friends from elementary or middle school. We just sort of drifted apart. Because I was quite introverted as a kid. I think it instilled in me a powerful value for friendship. My friends are extremely important to me, and this might be part of the reason why.
Flash forward to high school. My plan in high school was to be in band and do nothing else. I wanted to keep a low profile, read my books and generally stay out of everyone’s way. My mom had other ideas. She told me I had to at least try one activity other than band. Since I’m terrible at anything that is a sport or sport-ish, I decided to try theatre. I fell in love with it instantly. I’m not kidding; all it took was my first audition for me to love it. I became one of the most involved theatre kids in my school, and this group of people quickly became like a family to me.
Related: Let's Talk About Faith: Part 1 Of A 4 Part Series On Personal Values
It wasn’t just the theatre kids, though; I also had good friends in band and choir. In high school, friends are the ones who suffer through all things school-related with you. Being stuck with these people in the same building for seven to eight hours a day will do that. My theatre friends became something even more, though, since we also had evening rehearsals. Some of us just stayed at the school all day, and these were the people who became most like a family to me.
It’s hard to explain, but I think the main difference between high school and college friends is that high school friends are very school-specific. College friends feel like more. Maybe we can figure out why right now.
I got to college and remained active in both band and theatre, and because of it, I made most of my friends there. In college, though, you’re not just seeing these people for seven hours a day in one building. Rather, you see them all the time in a variety of places. If you go away to college, school isn’t separate from life. It is life. And when you’re away from your family for so long, your friends aren’t just like a second family; they legitimately become your second family.
These are the friends who see you at both your best and your worst. The ones you can see at any time, any day because you live just down the hall or one building over from them. You do everything together, not just school. Perhaps that’s why my college friends became so valuable to me. I love my high school friends, I really do, but my college friends have seen so much more of me.
Both groups are special to me, though. Friendship is, without a doubt, one of my highest values. I love my friends. I can’t say that enough.
