BY KLAUSS CRANDALL
English 9/Mr. Davis
Los Alamos High School
Editor’s note: Each year, the Los Alamos Reporter publishes a series of op-eds written by students in Adam Davis’s 9th grade English class to highlight the students’ writing. This is one of those op-eds.
Have you ever wondered if your friends were going behind your back? In many people’s lives they will make friends and some of those friends will not be nice, so does that mean that they’re not your friend or is it something that some people do? I think that friends are a little more complicated than we can understand. The dictionary defines friends as people who have a mutual bond with you. You most likely have a friend already while you’re reading this.
People can sometimes believe that their friends are not being very nice to them, which might mean that they are not actually your friend. According to Kaytee Gillis in “What Makes a Good Friend” a good friend will “Show empathy and kindness”, makes you “Feel good when you are with them”, they are “Willing to apologize and admit when they’re wrong”, and will always “Have time for you.”(What Makes a Good Friend?) If your friend does not act like this towards you, you might need to ask yourself if they even are your friend.
If you think your friend is being mean to you, it might not actually be them being mean to you. Sometimes you could act disrespectful to your friend making them feel the same way about you that you are feeling about them. Grace Miller in “How to be a good friend” states that to be good to your friend, you should “Be there when they need it.”(How to be a good friend) You always need to understand both sides of the conversation and talk to one another, to strengthen your friendship.
Speaking of understanding both sides, some people will look at this op-ed and say that this information is a bunch of lies and that they think that their friend acts nothing like this and is good to them. Speaking from experience I understand that friends can act mean towards you and not mean it; this is a type of teasing and is totally fine when it’s not often but if they are doing it all of the time, then they might not actually be your friend. I have had a few friends that acted like this and when I needed them most they threw me under the bus.
In life we probably have had and lost a few friends; these friends should always have your back and never let you fall. In this world we can be foggy. People manipulate us in our everyday lives. But the people that stand beside you, understand you, hear you, will always be there, and can make the world feel a whole lot clearer.