KRISTA ALBRITTON Staff Writer

I have never been a particularly emotional individual. I tend to stay reserved when it comes to things such as emotions. Of course, I have emotions; I just don’t experience them in nearly as strong of a measure as most other people.

As a result, it’s difficult for me to form connections and bonds with others. Even just having a connection with an object, something as common as having a memento, is foreign to me. Since this is the case when it comes to who I am, it seems strange that I have managed to make friends.

You see, friendship is an odd, funny little thing. It can grow and strengthen gradually or it can sneak up on you with the quickness and familiarity of déjà vu. Either way, it becomes detrimental to one’s survival as a human being. Friendship allows a connection to something outside of yourself and fills you with equal parts fear and safety. Your friends ground you, protect you and give you a safe place to be yourself.

At the same time, whether we are aware of it or not, they are a constant reminder of how dangerous such a connection is. By creating a close bond with another person you have inevitably opened yourself up to the possibility of losing that person. In the blink of an eye a friendship can end. One second you are as close as one can be to another and the next, they are gone, almost as if they had never been there at all. This person you were once so close to has left you behind in one way or another. Tossed aside like an old children’s toy that’s been outgrown.

That is how most friendships in our lives will go. We grow and we change and make new friends to fill the void. When truly thought about, it all seems terribly morbid. We never stop though. We, as greatly social creatures, continue to make ties to others.

Why? Why would we, the alleged most intelligent species on earth, do this to ourselves over and over? Why do some make it worse and turn friends into lovers? We do so because companionship is sweet. We do so because it is an amazing and powerful thing that makes us feel like so much more than we are and makes us into our best selves. We do so because friendship helps us get through the struggles of day to day life, lessens and gentles some of the heavy blows we are dealt. It’s a much needed breath of fresh air, a light in the dark, a comforting hand on the shoulder. That should never be given up just because it will eventually come to a close. The journey is and ought to be far more important than the end.