Friendship Definition Essay Example for Free

Friendship Definition Essay â€Å"Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend† said Albert Camus. People understand the concept of friendship differently, but there is one common ground for it- it is always built on a mutual sympathy, according to the Cambridge dictionary. Friendship can last for many years and grow stronger, but they can also end right away. No one knows the exact definition of friendship; however they do have their own way to tell if they have a friend. People say it’s hard to find a true friend- they are right because not everyone you know is your friend. Friendship is something important to me because I need someone to talk with. A friend to me is someone who is there for me no matter what, does not turn their back on me, they accept me for who I am, they care about me, I can trust them, we enjoy each other’s company, and we have fun together. Everyone needs a friend. Friends are like stress relievers, and they don’t judge, they see who we are and nothing else. I believe friendship is not perfect. There are always going to be flaws. According to the researched done in 2000 by Keith Davis, teenage friendships tend to grow hate or jealousy in between one another. This is when problems start to develop such as not being honest with each other. Another problem found in a research done in the 80’s was that opposite-sex friendships might not be considered a friendship at all. When a female and male are friends one of them starts to grow feelings, or they both grow feelings. That’s when the friendship turns into something emotional and sexual. It falls into the friends with benefits or the love category. There is a difference in between female and male friendships captured by Paul Wright in 1982. He describes women’s friendships as â€Å"face to face† and men’s as â€Å"side by side.† This indicates that women are more likely to choose to spend time â€Å"just talking,† when men are more likely to choose doing an activity with their friend. Women tend to be more emotionally close, intimate, and express more affection for their friends. Women are scientifically proven to seek support and sympathy in their friendship, while men find friends with common interest and whom they trust. I wasn’t satisfied by the way the internet and the databases defined friendship. So I did my own researched by asking people what friendship meant to them. Everyone defined friendship differently, I was surprised by the answers I got. Here are a few: â€Å"Friendship is when someone has trust for someone else. Two people who hold mutual affection for each other, having good communication with each other, and the ability to be one-self, expressing ones feelings, and making mistakes without fear of judgment.† –Edwin Castro â€Å"Friendship is a relation between two people where trust is big. They are close like brothers/sisters and have respect for each other.† – Martha Machuca â€Å"Someone you can act silly with and trust at the same time.† –Alejandra Avila â€Å"There is no such thing as friendship; your only friend is your pillow.† –Melvin Sanchez Friendship is a very hard concept to define, but there are a few things that will always go with it: sympathy, compassion, understanding, honesty, and trust. Friendship is not something that grows overnight, it takes time to develop. It is much harder to live if we don’t have close friends. We just have to choose wisely who our friends are. Work Cited â€Å"Friendship Styles.† Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender. Oxford: Elsevier Science Technology, 2001. Credo Reference. 14 July 2008. Web. 05 November 2012. â€Å"Friendship.† Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Credo Reference. Web. 05 November 2012.