The ability to maintain friendships with a small number of people over a long period of time is more important for happiness than the ability to make many new friends easily

There is no doubt that friendships matter a lot in one’s life. We played toy cars with kids from neighbors and that might be the first time we got in touch with the two terms – friend and friendship. And in the rest of life, we share sandwiches with friends after playing soccer; we study under the same desk lamp with friends; we listen to the same music which resonated between us and there are so many happy times shared with “friends” whereas they are not always the same group of people. some people hold the view that the ability to make new friends is more important than the ability to maintain a long-term friendship with a few friends. However, from my perspective, I hold the opposite view and regard the capability of maintaining a long-term friendship as the more important one.

First and foremost, due to humans’ emotional need, we must have one or two long-term friends who are the most intimate peers in the world besides your spouse, knowing the process in which you grow up and become the person today. It is known that we are intended to confide to someone intimate when we face some huge obstacles and the candidate is usually friend rather than spouse since many people don’t want their spouses to know their partner are in trouble, leading to frustrated atmospheres among families which may causes some indirectly unexpected affect to the relationship among families.

For the second, we can obtain a lot of knowledge and skills when we try to maintain a healthy long-term friendship, which benefits not only our mental health but also our relationship with co-workers. For example, we are going to learn about how to judge whether someone agrees with what you’ve said totally or he has questions remained in mind but doesn’t want to ask in the meeting due to some facts by observing their facial expressions. There are many obstacles needed to be overcome to maintain a friendship over a long period of time which is going to educate us to think about others more rather than just focusing on the personal needs of us, making you mature faster.

All in all, I believe that the ability to maintain a good friendship with several friends plays a more important role then to make new friends.