In the last couple of years, it's become a trend to refer to your tight-knit group of friends as your "squad" Being in college, it's clear that everyone is either a part of a "squad" or wishes that they were. From the outside, it may seem to others that I am a part of one myself, but this is not true. I don't believe in aspiring to be part of a squad. They carry the undertones of friendships that are shallow and based on having a certain image. My "squad", my people, are my yoke-fellows.

Yoke-fellows are people you can have the most fun with but also the ones with whom you can share the darkest parts of yourself. To be a yoke-fellow is to take on the burdens of those you love and allowing them to take on yours in return.

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Far too often, I see people who have friends that they can party with, study with, and play video games with, but they don't have anyone that they can share extremely heavy burdens with. No matter what stage of life you are in, whether you're a high school student or 90 years old, you can't go through life carrying a burden completely alone.

My senior year of high school was saturated with tragedy and this is why I think my "squad" became my yoke-fellows. We all had to lean on each other to face the heaviness of death.

I understand that for some people it's hard to make relationships of this depth, but they are so necessary and so worth it. In order to make these kinds of relationships, you need to be willing to share what you've endured in the past and what you are enduring now. Sometimes you will need to be the first one to be vulnerable, but once you do this, you make known to those you love that you can be trusted and that you care about them. When you are able to do this, your people will confide in you and they will love you; they will become your yoke-fellows.

"What's friendship, when all's done, but the giving and taking of wounds?”

--Frederick Beuchner, Godric