Assignment 20- Leighanne

How to be a good friend-

Okay so I'm still mastering this skill myself but I thought I would share what I have so far, as this is one of the most important skills you can ever learn.

1- Listen
 People need social interaction to survive! There is a reason humans were built with the capability of sympathy and compassion. These two things are absolutely critical to survival. No matter who you are, how independent you are or how great your life is, you will eventually need a friend in a time of trouble. You must be able to listen, I mean really listen, to other people. People also need peer- affirmation. This means you must also listen in times of triumph and react.

2- Be there
 Sometimes people don't want to talk or do an activity or be fun but they don't want to be alone. As a friend, I believe it's important to just be there for someone when they don't want to be alone. They may not cry to you or complain but you are helping them. To me, it sucks to be sad, but it sucks way worse to be sad alone. If you can handle the sadness of another with out judgement or explanation, that's invaluable.

3- Love
 I know I always talk about love but, like, it's so important. You just have to let yourself love. One of the most important things to being a good friend is learning to love yourself. Not in a vain way but to the point of acceptance. If you accept yourself, all of your flaws, past, issues, and idiosyncratic behaviors, I believe that this will allow you to truly love others the way you should. Extreme insecurities hold you back and taint the purity of connections. Once you have learned to love yourself (the part I'm still kinda working on), you have to love others. Allow yourself to be susceptible to their actions and words, lower your walls. This will give them the ability to hurt you but it will also give them the ability to help you when you need it. I would have made trust a category but I think it just goes into love so I'll leave it here. To love, you have to trust.

DISCLAIMER-
I'm just a 17 y/o highschool student who over-thinks things too much and likes to think I'm wise so everything above is purely speculation. You very well may disagree with many or all of my points.