There’s no doubt about it, friends are important! For many teens friends are often their whole world. Nearly all teens at one point or another feel like their home life and their family don’t give them enough support or empathy. Most teens want to spend the majority of their time with their friends. In fact, you do spend most of your day with your friends or school mates and not your family. Friends are usually on the same wave length as you. You can talk to them about everything. You can laugh together and cry together. Friends understand you, your moods, your problems, and your worries. They share your dreams, doubts, and fears, and most importantly they love you for being yourself. When you are a teen, sometimes your friends feel more like family than your own family does. Why is that? Because you chose your friends.

Teenage years are a time to meet people of different backgrounds and cultures. For many teens belonging to a “group” of friends is important. (We are not referring to “gangs“). Your group of friends may wear the same type of clothes, hair style, makeup, and share common ideas, interests, and values. Friendships within a group can mean deep loyalty and trust, which is often hard to find later in life.

Have you ever thought about what’s involved in making, and keeping a friend? What is it that you do, or the person with whom you’re becoming friends does, to bond your friendship and bring you together? Obviously there must be some shared interests and opinions, and then your personalities have to “click.” There’s also a certain amount of sharing. Sharing of your thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

In order to become a friend to someone you must be willing to open yourself up to the other person. You need to share yourself and also be willing to receive friendship from the other person.

Your friends are often the people you will turn to when you are feeling up or down. They are most likely to understand what you are experiencing and they understand your point of view. Friendships formed during your teen years may come and go, but some will last into your adult years and even for a lifetime. Tell one of your friends today how much you appreciate them and see how good that makes you both feel.