Why we need friends

This is a short essay I wrote for Bro. Oh's Muet tuition 3 years ago (dated 4th January 2007).

To me, friendship is like a flower. Beautiful but not forever. No matter how much we try to trick ourselves into saying, "friendship forever", it is not.

But we still need friends. Purely, because they could offer help in times of need. For example, you just need a beautiful necklace to complement your dress in order to attend a cousin's wedding. To whom do you turn to? When your family is not in sight, you will automatically run to the telephone and call a friend for help.

We need friends because we need favours from them. People tend to get a headstart in business because they have got connections with very influential friends. Some people use their friends to climb to a higher social ladder. In this world, friends equal to favours. 

However, selfish reasons aside, we need friends because we want to share joy, laughter and pain with them. Well, humans need to socialise. Whenever we are sad over a relative's death or happy over a string of A's in the public examination, we often turn to friends who would listen. We share with them details of our lives so that or pain could be alleviated and our joy doubled. 

So, when a friendship ends due to a huge communication gap or due to conflicting ideas, why do we cry so much? I think because we have shared so much with them. We put a bit of ourselves into them; and they put a little bit of themselves into us. So, why do we need friends? Because friends are a part of our lives.