It’s a simple question, right? What makes a friend? Is it someone who is supportive and helps you when you’re feeling down? Or is it someone who laughs at all your jokes and takes your mind off of the world? The truth is, friendship is different for everyone, and each and every friendship we have is special and important in some way. We need to start realizing the importance of friendship and how it is essential to student’s lives.

To some of us, friendship is more valuable than family. Friendship is something that has come to be more reliable than a lot of things in our lives. Often times, friends are the people we turn to when we’re having other problems in our lives such as school or family. They are a great outlet to explain our problems to and have them give advice that we can actually use. Students tend to trust friends and peers more than older persons, even if they do have more experience because they are seen as more relatable and they feel like they can really understand what the issue is more closely.

It even goes to extremes such as school life. Friends make it worth coming to school for many students. If someone is so unmotivated and doesn’t really care about school or their grades, friends are more than likely the one thing that is keeping them from dropping out completely.

Senior Kate Lehman said, “To me, a friend is someone that is always there to support me and just talk all around. It’s all about loyalty. I’ve been through a lot of struggles and hard times [with school] and friends made me feel like I wasn’t alone when alone is the first thing I felt.”

Newport Academy says, “Subsequently, the findings made clear that teens with more friends had fewer symptoms of depression. In addition, teens with a friendship network felt a sense of belonging. As a result, those teens had more positive feelings about their relationships with other people in society.” This brings a fantastic point and further emphasizes the idea that friendship needs to be prioritized. People don’t realize the significance of having friends and just how much it impacts the everyday lives of these teens.

Imagine that you or someone you know is struggling with a problem in their life that isn’t getting solved because of the basic roadblock that is inaccessible communication. Who can you talk to if not family? Now imagine that there is something or someone that understands what you are going through and can help. You can see the problem when I tell you that these friends are often seen as “distractions” or “unimportant” by authority figures.

Junior John Lux said, “I was going through a crisis and my friends were the only ones I could turn to and talk. I love them all so much and wouldn’t be here without them. I love them with all my heart.”

As you can see, friendship is of mass importance to students and can not only increase their overall mood but can help them improve the way they live in society.