This week, I'm bringing you yet another Friend Spotlight article. In this one, I'm happily introducing Michael aka "MJ", another close friend of mine.

Another friend of mine, Jess, originally inspired my idea for these types of pieces, so my previous two Spotlight articles featured her and my friend Martene. You can read more in the first one about Jess what exactly these articles are and how they were inspired, but the point of them is to celebrate the loving platonic relationships in our lives. The overall goal is to have this idea become a trend, which seems to be succeeding thus far since I've had yet another friend request to be featured. This friend is MJ.

MJ has been one of my close friends for about 3 and a half years now. We met through attending Arcadia together, specifically through Arcadia Christian Fellowship or "ACF," which is the Christian student organization on our campus. He was one of my first real friends at Arcadia that I'm still close to. MJ was 2 years ahead of me, so we only attended university together for 2 years, but we are still an important part of each other's lives. He is still in school; not at Arcadia but he transferred to Rutgers in New Jersey, which is where he's originally from. He'll be graduating from university this year, the same time as me.

I have so many great memories of fun times I've had with MJ, mostly with ACF related things. We've attended various retreats and Christian conferences together with other members of the club and we spent many hours at AfterParty playing this game called Avalon. I have several other fun memories with MJ outside of ACF as well, such as trips to Dunkin and Michael's Diner, Haunted Castle, random walks around Glenside, spontaneous trips into Philly, movie nights, and late night phone conversations. One of my earliest memories with MJ is watching Tangled and Mean Girls in my freshman dorm room with him and my then-roommate, who is also still one of my best friends. We've also spent Arcadia's annual Spring Fling together every year (which is the weekend of the spring festival at our school), even though as of last year he wasn't going to school here anymore. We plan on hanging out during this year's Spring Fling, as well. It will be a little different this year, because during last year's Spring Fling and the year before, we were hanging out with my ex-boyfriend as well. But the fact that MJ and my other good friends will still be around make me feel a bit better.

Going off of that, I have to point out how great MJ is at helping his friends with problems. No matter what, we know we can always go to each other about a struggle we're having. He's been there for me through school struggles, friendship troubles, and he's been there during all the drama with the aforementioned ex-boyfriend -- he was there when we first got together, and he provided a great listening ear for me when we were breaking up. He also helped me out a lot when I recently had drama with another guy I was dating. MJ really is a loyal and caring friend, to me and many other people.

MJ has a wide range of interests, including sociology (which he majored in), social work, activism, writing stories, and Christianity. I've always really appreciated how unapologetically dedicated MJ is when it comes to showing his passion for the things and people that he cares about. He's extremely intellectual and I've had so many great conversations with him about social justice and mental health. Because he's such an empathetic and philosophical person, he is a great friend to go to if you ever need to vent about a problem, get advice, or just talk about life. My previously mentioned instances of times that he's come through for me prove that.

I love how our friendship stems from our shared faith. Like I said about my friend Martene, MJ is another friend who I feel I'm bonded with through Christianity because it's so important to both of us. After all, it was how we became friends. I'm also really glad we share a lot of the same views, both religiously and politically, because with him, I can talk about things I wouldn't normally discuss with other people as religious or as liberal as I am.

I really do consider myself lucky to have a friend like MJ in my life. We may not see each other often anymore or communicate constantly, but just the fact that we've stayed friends for 4 years proves to me that we always will be. I think God really has blessed me with this friendship.

Love you MJ, and can't wait to see you soon for Spring Fling. Thank you for being a great friend, and thank you for volunteering as the subject of my third Spotlight article!

Once again, if anyone else would like to be featured in my writing, feel free to let me know!