Essay | Friendship for Composition II
Title: Friendship (really creative)
Property of: Heather Johnson/Entropic Theory
Assignment: "Write an essay based off a journal entry".
Summary: My misanthropic, deluded, and delusional view on friendship.
Warnings: Not my best work, only written in 20 minutes.
Friendship
UrbanDictionary.com defines “friend” as someone whom it’s okay to fart in front of and someone who will lend a person five dollars without expecting to get it back. The concept is really an ancient one that has most likely been in existence since people were first able to tolerate one another for more than a few moments. However, the necessity of obtaining detailed and precise explanations for words has created a more revolutionized definition. Friendship is a supportive, cooperative behavior between two or more individuals. This term has also been over-abused by the use of its less accurate designation; or as a someone who a person somewhat enjoys spending time with. Friendship is considered one of the central human experiences, and has been sanctified by all major religions. Unfortunately, it is a lot rarer than most tend to believe.
It has been said that a real friend is one that walks in while the rest of the world walks out. This imaging paints a picture of someone who has somehow lost focus of what the rest of the world wanted, but they still had that one person who stood by them regardless. More or less, this is the epitome of support and empathy. However, it has become an arduous task to attempt to find one person willing to destroy his or her own reputation for someone else. This is mostly because there is no one else to sacrifice for. According to the American Census, twenty-five percent of Americans have no close confidants, and the national average of confidants has declined to merely two. This is a major shift in the view that the Ancients had during their time - that friendship was the most sacred and joyful experiences to share with a loved one. No longer can two heterosexual males make contact with one another unless inebriated, and they cannot affirm any emotional connection with the other, their conditioned brains protect themselves from it. Religious or not, it has been driven into nearly every youth’s head that it is wrong to engage in homosexual activities, and because the line has been blurred by so many ill-informed figures, everyone flinches away from union because they are afraid they are crossing that line. Inevitably, any interpersonal relationship becomes impossible.
Another significant component of friendship is the innate desire to want what is best for the other. This practice is seldom seen in recent culture, as solipsism has gained more followers and empathy has been pushed so far into the background that it is virtually nonexistent. How often is it seen in today’s society one friend secretly relishing the misfortune of another? The sin of envy has broken something that is frequently taken for granted. Finding someone to listen to a mundane rant is difficult enough, but finding someone who would both listen and care is no longer accomplished. Nowadays, it is much easier to obey the principals that are beneficial to oneself than to others, and harder to follow what is helpful to someone else but harmful to oneself. Similarly, it is just as strenuous to care about another person’s problems when they do not have a direct impact on the other. Essentially, the world revolves around the beholder.
There was a time when I believed that I was truly being excluded from something that every person should experience. There was not a single person I spoke to regularly until I was nine, let alone someone I had an ounce of affection toward. Even then, and during the years of high-school when I acquired multiple acquaintances, I knew that not a single one of them met any of the qualifications of a Friend. When I spoke, a few people were interested, but none of them seemed terribly concerned nor seemed to care about what I was saying. Admittedly, I reacted in the same manner to them. I never had any of them over for birthdays, and I always declined the obligatory invitation one would send to me every few years. None of us sacrificed for any of the others, no one gave or listened to advice, and no one really wanted to. While these interactions have certainly made an impact on the person I am and will continue to become, I am glad for what I did not have. Today’s friendship is an outlet for social activity, and means absolutely nothing to the people in it. What I was missing was not actually friendship, but a mask of it. And it is best to envy what I disregarded than to be delusional with something that never was there to begin with.
Property of: Heather Johnson/Entropic Theory
Assignment: "Write an essay based off a journal entry".
Summary: My misanthropic, deluded, and delusional view on friendship.
Warnings: Not my best work, only written in 20 minutes.
Friendship
UrbanDictionary.com defines “friend” as someone whom it’s okay to fart in front of and someone who will lend a person five dollars without expecting to get it back. The concept is really an ancient one that has most likely been in existence since people were first able to tolerate one another for more than a few moments. However, the necessity of obtaining detailed and precise explanations for words has created a more revolutionized definition. Friendship is a supportive, cooperative behavior between two or more individuals. This term has also been over-abused by the use of its less accurate designation; or as a someone who a person somewhat enjoys spending time with. Friendship is considered one of the central human experiences, and has been sanctified by all major religions. Unfortunately, it is a lot rarer than most tend to believe.
It has been said that a real friend is one that walks in while the rest of the world walks out. This imaging paints a picture of someone who has somehow lost focus of what the rest of the world wanted, but they still had that one person who stood by them regardless. More or less, this is the epitome of support and empathy. However, it has become an arduous task to attempt to find one person willing to destroy his or her own reputation for someone else. This is mostly because there is no one else to sacrifice for. According to the American Census, twenty-five percent of Americans have no close confidants, and the national average of confidants has declined to merely two. This is a major shift in the view that the Ancients had during their time - that friendship was the most sacred and joyful experiences to share with a loved one. No longer can two heterosexual males make contact with one another unless inebriated, and they cannot affirm any emotional connection with the other, their conditioned brains protect themselves from it. Religious or not, it has been driven into nearly every youth’s head that it is wrong to engage in homosexual activities, and because the line has been blurred by so many ill-informed figures, everyone flinches away from union because they are afraid they are crossing that line. Inevitably, any interpersonal relationship becomes impossible.
Another significant component of friendship is the innate desire to want what is best for the other. This practice is seldom seen in recent culture, as solipsism has gained more followers and empathy has been pushed so far into the background that it is virtually nonexistent. How often is it seen in today’s society one friend secretly relishing the misfortune of another? The sin of envy has broken something that is frequently taken for granted. Finding someone to listen to a mundane rant is difficult enough, but finding someone who would both listen and care is no longer accomplished. Nowadays, it is much easier to obey the principals that are beneficial to oneself than to others, and harder to follow what is helpful to someone else but harmful to oneself. Similarly, it is just as strenuous to care about another person’s problems when they do not have a direct impact on the other. Essentially, the world revolves around the beholder.
There was a time when I believed that I was truly being excluded from something that every person should experience. There was not a single person I spoke to regularly until I was nine, let alone someone I had an ounce of affection toward. Even then, and during the years of high-school when I acquired multiple acquaintances, I knew that not a single one of them met any of the qualifications of a Friend. When I spoke, a few people were interested, but none of them seemed terribly concerned nor seemed to care about what I was saying. Admittedly, I reacted in the same manner to them. I never had any of them over for birthdays, and I always declined the obligatory invitation one would send to me every few years. None of us sacrificed for any of the others, no one gave or listened to advice, and no one really wanted to. While these interactions have certainly made an impact on the person I am and will continue to become, I am glad for what I did not have. Today’s friendship is an outlet for social activity, and means absolutely nothing to the people in it. What I was missing was not actually friendship, but a mask of it. And it is best to envy what I disregarded than to be delusional with something that never was there to begin with.