I don't wanna talk here about how good your friends are or how bad are them. Anyway, i just wanna ask you guys, what are friends for?
the one that stick with you when you are in trouble, the one who help you all the time, the one who only bee with you during happy momments and ignore you when they are in a bad mood?
to tell you, i'm no longer a teenager and i'm having enough of this stupid friendship thing and i can't really stand it any longer.

i don't know about you guys, but for me, having friends in university is not the same as having friends as when you are in high school.Now, i feel that i can no longer trust the people around me.
you are good to them, share with them the information regarding assignments, classes, sources with them..and in the end, some of them just shut up and refuse to tell me when i'm confuse or need help.
I know that i may be a lil sensitive here...but hey, doing assignments in different groups dosen't means that you can't share stuff around. i'm not gonna copy their stuff...why make such a big reaction? Isn't it great if all of us can graduate with flying colours and happy? Do you wanna see your friend left behind with a 3rd class or 2nd class lower result? For me, i don't. i don't have the heart to left people like that...

By the way, i hope that i can live alone now. one of my pals just ignore me when we are around in the room. i know that people do have bad moods...but, she can just talk and laught with the rest. You just can't talk things out cause i've been fighting with her once last semester when i'm too stress out and broke down in front of the others. If you consider me as a friend, you can share with me your problems, or talk to me about what you don't like about me. I may not feel happy at fisrt, but i can change to be a better person. Am I over reacted with that kind of stuff...i really have no idea...

i know that we should give and take, tolerate people...blah...blah...blah...but, sometimes i just don't think about myself. Just keep helping the others.Do people really care about me? Friends, it is too complicated when you are older to define this term. I can only trust one person, who is my best pal, but, she is not in the same university as me. I'm kinda lonely here since i can't really mix around well in campus.( just have nothing top talk to other people..it is hard for me to mix around)

Now, my friends in campus are just ok...with all the problems around, i'm too tired to think about it. Hope i'm not acting childish here. It's just a part of growing up.Hope i'm not spamming here.
True friends are rare, we should treasure them the most.
hope you can share your opinions here...:)

Mm i think friends are more for emotional support, cheer you up and all that stuff. I can only do so much to help out my friends that are in trouble, but I am like you, I tend to care more for others than about myself. There always seems to be some kind of friend phase, where you change friends at a certain point of your life. I try not to take things to seriously, like thinking if they really care about me and such, just live through it.

You are absolutely correct there, true friends are very rare. But what are friends for, you ask? That's all a matter of opinion. I for one see friends as people who share common interest, people you can just sit around and do nothing, without getting bored. Friends are for many things, and you will certainly find that your friendless, ideal lifestyle will certainly take its toll on you. Friends are there to have fun. You go out, do stuff together, take your mind off of the bad things happening, and just relax. Friends are for support. Everyone has a sense of moral sentiment within them, and instinctively help those they consider friends, be it an emotional problem, or physical, such as financial problems. I know I for one would certainly lend a friend some cash, and help 'em cope with a loss if the time were to arise.

But then you may think that some of your friends are annoying. That's only natural. Take eating too much of a certain food, for example. In time, you will grow to think that it is disgusting, having eaten so much. The same goes for friends. Just take some time away from 'em. A little break. It's not as if you split apart or anything. That's certainly not always the case though. Many people have those friends that spend a countless amount of time together, and never get at each others throats, or bicker, or find each other annoying. These are whom I consider to be true, best friends. I have one friend, whom I have known for a good fifteen or sixteen years, who stays over every weekend, and on holidays and such, stays over for weeks on end. I consider him to be a brother more than anything, and nothing less. We share common interests, and do virtually everything together. These kinds of friends rarely come up in your life, so I say you shouldn't look forward to a life of solitude. Certainly there must be a least one person, one friend you can't picture yourself without? I know I do. Several. Take that into deep consideration when picking out one bedroom apartments.

A friend is someone whom you love, though in a purely platonic sense. A true friend is someone who reciprocates this love. When I spoke to my friend after not talking to him for a couple of years by losing contact, the rest of my day felt great because I was happy. He had planned to roam a city looking for me, and I had exhausted every online search I could think of, because we both wanted to know how the other was doing. That is friendship. We were happy as hell to speak to each other, and we haven't spoken since in about a week. I plan to make a trip to Maine to go see him in a couple weeks to hang out and really catch up, in person and not on the phone. This is an example that shows some true elements of real and genuine friendship.

My advice is to not put your full confidence into people unless you know that you share a great relationship like this, though admittedly, friends like this one are hard to come by. There are friends whom are merely associates, there are co-workers, there are drinking buddies, mentors, friends, and best friends. Know how to classify each person respectively and give them proper "security clearance".

I dont really plan to have the "friends" I make in college as long term freinds since every semester I get a new homework/email exchange buddy. They're more like temporary alliances to achieve a common cause. They say the closest friends you make are the ones in high school anyway.

People need friends, even if theyre temporary ones, not only for homework, but because it's simply much too lonely in a large university. You're sitting in a lecture hall of 600 students and don't bother to glance who is sitting next to you for 4 months until you need something from them. That's how it is. People naturally group together, so no matter how antisocial you are, you're always searching for a companion. Sadly with modern technology, they can come from a computer monitor.

How awkward is it for you to buy a sandwich and eat it alone in a lunchroom full of round tables, at which all are occupied with more than 3 people, save yours? Doesn't it feel as if everyone is glancing your way?

I try to hang around people as little as possible, even my best of friends, only because I don't feel comfortable in large crowded public places. I can deal with small groups in a small room, otherwise you will always catch me staring at the ground as I walk with my headphones on, blocking out the rest of the world. Elevators make me edgy, since the ones in my school can fit like 20 people and if I'm not on the sides staring at the steel wall, I'm very uncomfortable. I don't need them for emotional support. I'm simply using them to keep me company on those occasions my human nature demands them ^^;

What are friends for huh? I don't know. There are a lot of different kinds of friends.

1. The friends you can share anything with.
2. The friends that will bring you out drinking and simply having fun with.
3. The friends that provide you with the latest gossip?
4. The friends that are simply just there.
5. The friends that will sit in a jail cell with you.
6. The friends that will keep you from dying of boredom.

But anyway, true friends are hard to find. And just like you, I don't trust people. But those who I have come to trust have never let me down in my times of need. :)

For me friends are important... but when I talk about friends, they are only some 3 or 4 people that I think I can trust and count on... I've tried them once to tell the truth and they did not left me behind in troubles... for others, it was the opposite and I just left them too... I cannot stand people that use you and then throw you away... even when I choose my friends, I do not say to myself that I have to be X friend's just because X have this or that or can help me doing this or that... this is hypocrisy in my opinion!

I agree about you that friendship at University is even harder and more difficult... maybe because people by that time have grown and that they think more and more in a pratic or pragmatic way... Even if universities usually stress the fact that students have to work in a collaborative and a cooperative way, it is not always the case... In fact, it seems that it is the case only when other students need your work not when you dare ask them about help...

I think that you are not too sensitive by saying that sharing the work is not bad... I think the same as you, but only when it comes to share and not stole the work as you said... Personally, I do not do it with some of my classmates (I'm not even talking about friends) because I know that they are simply going to take my work... and they are not showing me their work unless they need my help... one of my classmates (she never talked to me before or even said hi...) came to see me once to show me what she have done in an assignment due, and I helped her because I found that it was normal to do so... Unfortunatly, she never talked to me after that... she just used me and threw me away...

I almost had a diciplinary problem because of something like this (sharing work) two semesters ago. We did a seminar presentation in a certain class, me and a classmate. Next semester, I hear about the same presentation... I go to the news and I could have the actual presentation in hand to discover that it ws the same as mine! When I investigated more, my classmate told me that someone asked him about the presentations because she (it is a "she" and she was supposed to be a friend of mine) wanted to have a sense of what she was supposed to do... but she simply stole the work! I was so angry that I want to see her professor and got the things straight!! Some thought that I did it to harm her (and it was the case in some sense) but the most important for me was to tell her that I do not want people to mess around with me like this!! If my professor had discovered that it was the same presentation, I would be having diciplinary problems on plagiarism now...

In fact, most of the people do not give a damn about you when it comes to their personal and private interest!! I have decided to be more cautious about these issues... not everyone who pretend to be my friend is so... Maybe that it is kind of isolating me from other people (in fact, very few people dare to approach me sometimes...) but I think that I have to care about myself too... because others do not care about my feelings, so do I really have to care about theirs?? (Well, it is true that I'm not completely able to let the others aside, but I'm having a lot of problems because of people lately...)

I have to acknowledge that in fact, "True friends are rare, we should treasure them the most" exactly as you said... However, we are not obliged to be friend with everyone... I think that keeping a certain degree of respect toward yourself force the respect of others... so if we have respect, then it is enough... ate least for me!

Sorry for talking too much!! But it is true that I'm having problems with this issue right now!! :) So Reesha, do not worry... You are not acting in a childish way!!

Through experience, I can tell you friends are the people you can turn to when your family seems a thousand miles away because they don't understand you and your friends do. If I didn't have my friends, I'd probably have done something I would've regretted for the rest of my life. They understand more because they are of your era, your period, your time, and not like your parents who's childhood and experience are so much different than your own as time changes.

I completely understand you on the university business same here... they act really friendly and talk only about assignments and really nuthin much else they don't care about your problems your emotional needs they don't care about being your "friend" but they do want you around for the help of assignments... this is how university life is and I completely understand it when I had to miss a class because I was sick, and believe me that class you have to goto the lecture because there is no book that is worth reading there is no way you can do your hw and such if you don't goto the lecture, I asked someone for their notes and they said "What am I your notetaker? this is the last time you can borrow notes from me bla bla" and im thinking WTH? I mean does it hurt you so much to let me borrow the notes because I was sick and couldn't make it to class? and when im confused on hw and ask for help they of course say you cant always rely on people bla bla... its really frustrating.. of course there are people who would help but those people also do not care about you just more of school in general... it is very hard to find someone youd consider a true friend in university... I say you have more chance of finding those in a club related activities where the people that you interact with is probably not the same major or class as you because they cant really talk about school with you... thats what I found...

as for true friend I can only say I have around 3 or 4 not that many because there are not that many people I can really trust the world is just like that not everyone can care about everyone else maybe just certain group of people... my friends that are always there for me and to listen to me those people are really true to me and to me those people are the most important... maybe I am being a bit opinionated here too but I completely agree with you on this topic...

Friends...well i think friends are for

1. to share the laughs and frowns with
2. someone you share some of your secrets to
3. give you emotional support
4. to be mean so sometimes >=)

university friends are just people you meet for homework purposes and trying to achieve a same goal, friends in university are really hard to maintain...but tru friends would never abandon you no matter what, and i can say i only have a small group of that, people who go through thick and thin and won't back off when the going gets tough.

One day, I missed a Macroeconomy Class, and I did not know that the professor gave assignments (readings + summaries + exercises...) to the students due on the next class time...
The day before the class, I knew it completely randomly... I really was angry against one of my "friends"... because I'm with him in my classes and he did not told me a word about it! I had to spend the whole night working on the assignment... I have not slept the whole night even if I was sick at that moment... Well, my health went quite worse after that... But I think that now, that friend is doing his best to make me forget that again...

As a guy, who has guy friends, i would say, not much. A person to play video games with... thats about it.

I think I had a thread like this awhile ago. but I think my friends are for support when you need it and to tell the truth wheather you like it or not I hope.
I think no matter what we fall out with friends sometimes but we also fallout with family I think the only difference is that we find it easier to get out of a friendship than it is to walk away from family.
I really think we call to many people friends when they are just associates

Meh, I probably consider them as nothing but human interaction, for me, friends are like reliance, they are that little encouragement that you get when you are down, and a little push when you need it.
Sometimes, it doesn't even matter if they are, they are there. They are people whom you know, and come to accomodate yourself among them, like a small part of the world which you understand by heart, and friends are those people.
I do not have a particular definition, but for me friends back in old times, mean to get ready to fight together and win a battle together (I mean literally Gang wars, used to be gangster). But then, this changed, for me, it is now just a matter of having people who care and understand you, while trying to make a very good bond with them as it is, you will try to give them the same treatment of course. Mutual respect, that is what are friends for. A harbor for your retreat when the winde blows hard.

I've got Tekken Buddies, who I play Tekken with, I got to know them through the Internet on www.tekkenzaibatsu.com That's how all the Tekken Playas around the world come together, even Internationally. Those kinda friends are good for Competition. Some of em are real friends though, like one in Heidelberg.
Friends who just use you to get material things from u, or don't give em back when you lent them those things, aren't real friends.

A true friend feels for the other, sometimes wants nothing in return when he did something certain for one...