In our society today, friends are what comfort us in times of need and provide us with social contact that allow us to grow as a person. In high school friendships are one of the most important type of relationship a person can have, aside from typical student to favorite teacher bonds and student to student relationships that go beyond friendship. Peers should be considered friends on the most basic standings, even if you do not hang out with the person everyday going to the mall or playing xbox all day on the weekends. The peer to peer bond as well as all the others should be one that is a friendship by dictionary definition.

Often times these bonds are broken. and in some cases, by a seemingly important disagreement when really in the end of things, it is realized that the matter of discussion was frivolous and no cause for an argument. In other cases, it is broken by something more important matters such as a physical dispute or a joke that was taken the wrong way. It is important that during these times you remember what a friend is supposed to act like and how they are supposed to provide support for their those friends.

The most important rule of friendship and peership (this is what I will call friendships among classmates from now on) is mutual respect between the people in question. This respect includes: not talking behind someone’s back, not endangering them in any way, and not saying hateful things regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or academic standings. Respect is not only these things mentioned but so much more. Every person has their own definition of respect and their own way of showing it which leads me to my next point; respect also means that the person has a right to express and show one’s views and you do not need to agree with them but you should at least listen. I, and many others, have seen this as being a large problem in the classroom. This is one of the first topics of this column because of its major importance. You may be a feminist, or atheist or whatever -ist you want to be, but bottom line is that we need to have mutual respect when another person’s views come up even if you don’t agree with them. Lets just all get along and make it through these four years as a happy “family” with some respect in the mix. Cool? Cool.

Stay classy guys!