Hey guys! Firstly, I’d like to tell you all that this will be my last column under my internship. However, Mrs. Matthews has been nice enough to allow me to email in columns whenever I’d like; so I’ll probably still send some in from time to time.

This week I wanted to talk about the meaning of friendship because it’s a topic that’s been on my mind lately. So what does friendship mean to you?

There are many quotes out there about friendship and I believe one of the more profound ones was by Walter Winchell, an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator, who said “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out”. This is very true because you don’t want someone who, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, is only around when your shadow is: while the sun is shining. A true friend is always there when you need them even if the whole world isn’t. Helen Keller, an author and political activist, said that “walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light”. Everyone needs that kind of support in their life in one way or another because life isn’t all that grand if you spend a vast majority of it feeling lonely.

A more fantasy-geared way of looking at friendship is given by Anais Nin, an essayist: “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born”. I think of this quote as saying the world of new personalities you may adopt when you get a new friend. Maybe your new friend introduces you to a new type of food, music group, or maybe their style starts to rub off on you and you start dressing similarly. They might also birth you into the world of a particular church that you’d never been a part of or simply stopped attending for various reasons. Perhaps they’ll even awaken a new way of thinking or a fun hobby. Friends are the doorways to so many worlds and it’s a wonder what will happen with them in your life.

Dodinsky, author of “The Garden of Thought”, offers the idea that “that there are friendships imprinted in our hearts that will never be diminished by time and distance”. In this respect, it is seen that friendship defies the odds of time and distance. This is a great thing to keep in mind for the few of us that aren’t very good at communicating and keeping in touch with one another. Just because someone isn’t in your life as much, doesn’t mean that they aren’t your friend anymore and that they don’t still love you.

Frank Crane says that “a friend is someone with whom you dare to be yourself”. This notion is great because it’s nice to have someone in your life that you can be completely yourself with and not worry about them judging you or making fun of what you do. They may pick on you, but it’s usually in the light-hearted friendly way. I know with my friends, if they didn’t pick on me I’d think they were mad at me; that’s just how we work.

So get out there and call up your friends and tell them much they mean to you. Think about what friendship means to you. Be thankful for the ones you’ve been granted, even if you guys don’t talk as much as you may have at one time for various reasons. Hope you guys stay safe and know that you’re loved. I’ll see you guys sometime down the road when I write more.

Cheyenne Harbison is a student at Sampson Early College High School and is working at The Sampson Independent as part of her senior project.

By Cheyenne Harbison

Early College intern

Cheyenne Harbison
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_Cheyenne-2.jpgCheyenne Harbison