Be the Friend you Wish you Had

In high school, I kept to myself the majority of the time. A lot of this had to do with being bullied, but the other small percentage of me just hated all the backstabbing that went on. I just decided I was better off with a few amount of true friends. When I got to college, that all changed. Like many incoming freshman, I wanted a new beginning. I made a decent amount of friends my freshman year. By the beginning of my sophomore year of college, which I'm currently in now, I talked to none of the "close" friends I met there. 

Once again, I decided it was better off to be alone and have few friends instead ones who weren't good friends. 

The term "good friends" is totally subjective and the definition varies. Being at college taught me a lot about what is not okay to do in a friendship. Friendship isn't defined on excluding people because they don't drink, or talking maliciously about you for personal gain. I had a friend last year that would want to me to talk to her about what I was feeling upset about, only to turn around and talk badly about me to the whole dorm and tell everyone the things I had told her. I had "friends" purposefully do hurtful things after we got in a minor disagreement. Nothing says mending a friendship like purposefully being rude, right? These instances happened to me multiple times by those who I thought I was closest with. Even though it sucks to lose friends, I'm glad I am no longer associated with those people. Those experiences taught me a lot. I may not have a lot of close friends, but I strive to be a good friend. I don't want to make my friends feel bad, exclude them or act maliciously toward them. I want to make my friends feel empowered, accept them for who they are, help them when they're sad, and be a shoulder to cry on.  

Be the friend you wish you had. 

Think of it this way, if you had a friend like yourself, would you like how they are treating you? If the answer is no, then you learned something. Sometimes we need to step back and look from things in a different perspective. 

What does it mean to you to be a "good friend"?