Preview

What Are Friends for?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
337 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Are Friends for?
What Are Friends For? Ronda McKinney Louisiana State University of Alexandria

What Are Friends For?
This article is a brief summary of the many types of friends that come in and out of our lives and how they can impact our lives in one way or other.

What Are Friends For?
Marion Winik is a creative writing instructor and commentator for National Public Radio who wrote “What Are Friends For?” an excerpt from her memoir “Telling” (1995).
Winik states that “Buddies are the workhorses of the friendship world, the people out there on the front lines, defending you from loneliness and boredom.” Marion goes on to discuss Relative Friends who are family by birth but friends by choice. They tend to be your best memory keepers.
A Faraway Friend is similar to a Relative Friend in that they are someone you grew up with and remind you of your old days. These friends tend to come and go from your life on a whim but always remain your friend. If this person were closer they might be a Buddy or Hero Friend.
Relationships with Coworkers can seem close while at work, but never quite solidify outside of the job. This friendship quickly fades if either of you leave the company.
Former Friends and Friends That You Love to Hate are linked in a way that you can hate them both. Friends That You Love to Hate make you feel good about yourself and you tend to want to keep them close. They are definitely someone you can always talk about to others. Former Friends are easily disposed of relationships due to “misunderstandings”, “betrayed trusts”, an “ill-conceived flirtations” or any other number of conflicts.
Your hero friends are the ones who are always saving the day with sweetness and modesty that make them impossible to hate.
Lastly there are new friends. These friends allow you to get a fresh start and become

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    One strives to find an individual to be able to connect on an intellectual and emotional level. The prime definition of a friend, defined by Google is, “a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.” Despite there being a concrete definition, friendship has no terminology because everyone’s view on it is distinct and miscellaneous. The pure definition of friendship is defined on one’s own notion. In The Things They Carried, Rat Kiley and Curt Lemon had a bona fide friendship that was equivalent to no other friendship. Mark Fossie and Mary Anne Bell also had a friendship that was beyond than just a friendship. Both relationships were so complementary but yet contradicted each other sufficiently.…

    • 1374 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marion, in this article, listed several types of friendships. There are buddies, who go the extra mile for you and would do anything you would ask of them and in return you would do the same. There are the relative friends. This friend is a family member with whom you just click with. Your opinions about every family member are the same and they can recall events that happened in your lifetime because they were there with your crazy family. There is that special guy at work relationship. At first it starts out meaningless but grows into something beautiful. This relationship only last within the workplace and doesn’t usually survive a job change, but you will always have your memories. The faraway friend is the kind of friend that you grew up with but one of you moved away. This friend is the one that you have not spoken to in months and you just continue right where you left off at the moment you connect again. This friend is always there even if they are hundreds of miles away. Then there is the Former Friend. This friend is the…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same” –Anonymous. Friends are truly so important in our lives. This has been true all throughout history, although sometimes friendships were encouraged more than others. The conditions during the Great Depression simultaneously fostered and discouraged friendships. John…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    English 4

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As much as humans like to control their own lives, there are many aspects that are outside of our control. For example, we do not choose the families into which we are born or the places where we grow up. The same is sometimes true of friendships. Some friends we choose because we identify them as people who are similar to us and because they offer us something we want. Occasionally, however, we make unexpected friends. For example, a young person bumps into someone at the library who is crying because she has lost an important paper she was writing for school. As a result, the two become friends and learn that helping people through tough times is at the core of strong relationships.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One minute you have a lot of friends, and the very next minute you only have one or two. As you get older you end up losing a lot of friends but you gain the knowledge of who your true friends are. Those friends who have stuck by your side through the ups and the downs are your life long friends.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Friendship

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are many valuable things in life, but friendship may be one of the most important. To live life without the experience of friendship, is life without living. Human interaction is a necessity to survival, but developed friendships are essential to the successful well being of anyone. Based upon Webster's Dictionary, the definition of a friend is, "A person whom one knows, likes and trusts." But to all, Friendship has no defined terminology. The definition of a friend, and friendship, is based upon one's own notions. Many people look for different characteristics in friends, things that may be common in nature. There are many different types of friends that one wants or needs. There are Five different categories for these friends. It is best in nature to recognize and appreciate various kinds of friends.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Friends encourage good habits, chase away depression, help you overcome diseases and cause satisfaction, pleasure and happiness” (The Huffington Post UK). It has been scientifically proven that you need friends in your life. Nothing can show a person’s loyalty than being the greatest friend possible. There are certain people that others need in their life to be able to live a great life. John Steinbeck, the author of, Of Mice and Men, shows that a healthy friendship is the most important commodity you can have in your life.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unexpected Friendship

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As much as humans like to control their own lives, there are many aspects that are outside of our control. For example, we do not choose the families into which we are born or the places where we grow up. The same is sometimes true of friendships. Some friends we choose because we identify them as people who are similar to us and because they offer us something we want. Occasionally, however, we make unexpected friends. For example, a young person bumps into someone at the library who is crying because she has lost an important paper she was writing for school. As a result, the two become friends and learn that helping people through tough times is at the core of strong relationships.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During our lifetime, we come across many different types of people. Some people will dislike us while others will want to be just like us. The ones who dislike you are mostly referred to as your enemies and the ones who want to be like you are called your friends. There are three different types of friends. They are the acquaintances you make in school, the friends you lose as you grow, and best friends who may leave, but they never go too far.…

    • 470 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Friendship

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Friends are those people who surround us with care and love. When life is so dark and all doors are closed, friends are that hope you can stand by. However, friends do not always form that beautiful emotional relationships, some of them rather carry other hidden intentions which are covered by the name of friendship. I believe that friends fall under two main categories which are real friends and friends of special interests.…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What Are Friends For

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages

    New Friend is the last category, as one’s goes along the lines, Winik describes it in such fashion that can make the reader conclude, that New Friends have the magic of reinvent oneself energy with the sense of being only in the present. “It’s almost like falling in love” (Winik 511).…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One natural killer of friendships is distance. When a friend has to move away for one reason or the other; the distance between the two becomes an obstacle to their friendship. At first, the two might try to keep in touch via phone calls, texts messages, e-mails, phone calls. However, more often than not, these long phone calls and lengthy messages turn into unreturned calls and one word messages. Each of them now have new experiences, in most cases, the two parties meet other people and form new relationships in which the other is not part of. As a consequence of this, friendship becomes null and void and the bond connecting them together is broken.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First of all, there are those friends that are only seen in school or work.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Friends can influence behaviors, and characteristics (Berndt, 2004). They can affect one’s identity by helping an individual pass successfully into a developmental crisis and are able to depend on them…

    • 1876 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this world we need to know and to make a difference between a good friend and a bad friend. In this world we see the friends are useful, helpful, and happiness. Per person point of view; for example, people are like to make friends, and some their do not like to make a friend who are solitary of the people.…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays