Friendship is an interesting topic for sure. As DMC-RUN once said, “It’s tricky.”

How do we know when we first meet a person that we like, if they will be a casual friend that we smile at on our way to class, but don’t talk much else besides running into each other, or a friend that we feel so incredibly open with that you already have multiple trips planned to take beside on your life of adventure?

The quick answer is, you don’t.

You might not necessarily know everything about a friend until a difficultly arises or even if you are just going through one of those ~weird~ times. Someone who you might have known forever can start to feel like a stranger, but you also have the ability to change that. Everyone can at least try. If you want to win a dance competition, what do you do? Try in class and at home. If you want to ace your exam, what do you do? Try in class and at home. Friendship, more than many other time in your life, is often tested in college.

So, if you want to make a friendship last, what do you do? Try.

I personally think that the most important component of friendship is effort. It is the basis of everything. If you put forth effort, then you are showing that you care about the friendship and that you want it to work, and that it is worth your time all at once.

We are all busy, no matter where we are in our life. Ergo, being “crazy” busy is simply not an excuse (unless it’s finals week). Friendship is comprised of two people, so obviously it has to be double-sided.

Where do we get the entitlement that other people that we care about are just going to give us their time when we don’t reciprocate?

It is one of the first lessons that we are taught in school, to treat others as you want to be treated. So why wouldn’t you treat your friends that way? Why would you want to be a friend that doesn’t care? Obviously, you would not want to have a friend that seemed like they didn’t care.

There is not one universal way to show that you care. Every person is different and expresses their feelings in different ways, but as a friend, you would know what those ways might be. In the end, all I am trying to say is that we are so blessed to live at a time right now in this part of the world out of all of the times and places that we could have lived.

Your fellow classmates and friends are the people, out of all the people who have existed in the universe, who are around you now. If that doesn’t seem like fate, then at least treat them as you would like to be. Good friendships bring happiness, and be happy that you have friends that you can share that alongside.

Remember, the things worth having don’t always come easy.