You've got a friend in me

It is amazing how powerful friendship is. I think we need it, we crave it, as intensely as we need and crave food and water. As the Torah says, "it is not good for Man to be alone." It is hard to always remember how much we mean to our friends, especially when we're wrapped up in our own lives or our own troubles and worries. But when we finally discover that it has been days without any real human interaction, the resulting emotions are awful. You can end up starving for friendship - and not the sort of camaraderie that exists in a group, but the attention of that one friend, or maybe two friends, who makes it clear to you that you, specifically you, are important and valued and enjoyable to be around. It's always, always, always so important to take the time out for a good friend, both for your friend's sake and for yours. And the silliest thing is for everyone to sit on their own wondering where all their friends have gone and not realizing that their friends are wondering the same exact thing.

There are certain times of the year where friendship is put to the test. Finals, the summer, times when people are super busy and very apart. Times when there is no structure in the day which guarantees your running into your friends and consequently spending time with them afterwards. These are times where it's sometimes difficult to take the initiative and reach out, because you're sitting alone feeling depressed and wondering why no one is reaching out to you.

But it's incredibly amazing how spending just one night hanging out with a good friend can change the view of the previous hours and change the way you wake up the next morning - suddenly ready to face the day. It's unbelievable how powerful being with just one friend is and how happy it can make you, almost like you're recharging your battery. You're rejuvenated suddenly, your hunger is gone, you're strong again and you can once more face the world with your head up, knowing you've got your friends by your side if you need them. I think we all need reminders like that every so often. It's so easy to forget and fall into despondency.

Anyway, I guess the point of this is, take time out in your day for your friends. Even though everyone is always so busy, it's so, so, so important to make sure you're there for your friends, too, and it'll make you feel just as happy. And thank you to everyone who has been such a good friend to me this year and any time before that and, I hope, will continue to be in the future. I really, really, really appreciate it.