When I was very young, I was told not to talk to strangers. Even though I understood the potential for danger, I couldn’t help thinking I might miss out on getting to know someone important if I didn’t extend my friendship. In church, I would peek my head over the pews and smile at one or two people. Most people would smile back at me, and there was not a better feeling in the world! At two or three years old, I was capable of making adult friends without using a single word. Week after week I would try out my smile on someone new. As a child, my definition of friendship included the relationships I had with anyone who smiled back at me.

In junior high school, it became more difficult to acquire and maintain friends. At the time, I f

elt I was the only one experiencing constant friendship changes. In retrospect, all young people are subjected to the ever-changing nature of children who define and redefine friendship, experiment with identity, and frequently imagine themselves as a different people. We defined ourselves by our dress and speech and by our “cliques.” Our friends were often accessories to our moods. Hearts were broken, but hearts usually healed quickly. Few classmates could be labeled as committed companions.

Thus, few people maintain strong friendships with childhood buddies. The children we played sports with or copied our homework from became unique individuals, developing and pursuing diverse relationships. Our paths crossed early on, we grew, and moved on. Every friendship should offer that invaluable opportunity to grow, emotionally connect to another person, and to discern when that connection can carry one through a brief period of life or throughout our entire life. To define “friends” or “friendship” is a virtually impossible.

As an adult, it is far more difficult to make new friends however, when an adult establishes friendships, the relationshi

Some topics in this essay:
Miriam Webster’s, definition friendship, person relationship,