As the school year starts, the social lives of teens shift — based on class schedules and activities — and they often find themselves spending time with a crowd, or different people than they had been hanging out with previously. As their friendships change, and new relationships enter the picture, it’s important for them to remember that true friends allow them to be themselves. Each individual brings something special to the table, whether it be a talent, a personality trait like a great sense of humor, a gift for knowledge or something else. Good friends celebrate these interests and what makes their friends unique, they don’t try to suppress them. Everybody wants to be liked, and that’s important, but it is equally important that friendships are healthy and that friends don’t make their friends feel ashamed, or paranoid about the things they enjoy doing. Now is the time to foster positive relationships. A good friend worth keeping will support their friends and what they love to do. They’ll celebrate their friends’ talents and they may even share them. A good friend brings out the best in another friend, loves them and even forgives them when they make mistakes or are not in the best of moods. Remember, in order to be a true friend, we first have to be honest with ourselves, and be true to us first.
Read more about this in “Dear Girls, Life is Too Short for Crappy Friends”.
(Based on excerpts from “Dear Girls, Life is Too Short for Crappy Friends”, by Anna Lind Thomas, Babble.com)
Photo credit: photosbyChloeMuro / Foter / CC BY-ND
Ardsley SAYF Coalition 