When I was younger, I wanted to have a lot of friends so badly. I wanted everyone to like me, and I spent far too much time trying to be "popular." Because of this, I wasted so much of my time and energy striving to build and maintain friendships with people who would never reciprocate my same level of effort and care.

As I have matured and gained some valuable life experience, I have learned that it is so much healthier to focus my time and energy on fewer but much more rewarding friendships. It took me years to realize this, but now I am at a point in my life where I would rather have 3 or 4 really close and true friends than 100 shallow or less meaningful ones.

When I was in high school and was struggling with the feeling that I really didn't have many true friends, I remember my dad telling me that at the end of my life, if I was able to count the number of genuine friends I had on one hand, then I could consider myself truly blessed. He explained that as we get older, we stop feeling the need to spend so much time worrying about the opinions of those who aren't truly our friends. He told me people can be cruel, especially in high school. But he also told me that I would meet people in my life that would become friends who I would cherish forever.

That small piece of advice my dad gave me a few years ago has proved time and time again to be true. I have lost friendships that I wanted to last, but looking back, I know they were never genuine to begin with. This has given me more room for the friends in my life who I know I can trust, and allows me to be a better friend in return.

Baltasar Gracian once wrote, "True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island… to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing."

My advice is to worry less about how many "friends" you have, and worry more about what kind of friend you are and who you build friendships with.