Chose an interesting Topic - Essay Example

The purpose of this brief paper is to identify the various stages of relationship that my best friend and I went through growing up, identify conflicts that emerged between us, and to formulate a conclusion about the value of such interpersonal relationships. Our friendship was initiated during grade school. Ahmed and I ended up in the same class one particular year, with him being new to the school. Like most kids, I did not pay much attention to the ‘new kids’. Over time, however, I realized that we both had so much in common.

We shared the same interests in sports, classes at school, and outside activities. It seemed that we would have been great brothers. During this stage of our just beginning friendship, I suppose we began to explore each other. Good friends are hard to come by, and we both wanted to make sure that we truly desired to invest the time in each other to make such a friendship work, blossom, and become a lifelong partnership. As the months of that school year went by, our friendship began to intensify.

This began with us playing simple games in the schoolyard. Before long, Ahmed was regularly in with my own group of friends, and he quickly became one of the ‘gang’. Over time, Ahmed and I spent more time with each other than others in the group because of our intensifying belief that we would make great friends. We had so much in common, it seemed that we were meant to help each other along life’s journey. Naturally, we were typical school age children growing up in the Middle East. We got into mischief, respected our elders when they were in our presence, and scorned them when they were not.

During this intensifying portion of our friendship, Ahmed and I frequently would go to each other home’s after school, and we both got to know each other’s family well. In short, we became best friends within the span of a single school year. During the school year, life is quite hectic, especially for a young boy. There are many responsibilities to take care of, both at school and at home. Since Ahmed and I only met at the beginning of a school term, we needed that first year to discover one another and begin the process of growing our friendship.

It was not until the end of the school year, and the beginning of the summer break, that our relationship turned quite stable. It was during that first summer that we were truly inseparable. Every day we were together, playing together and just enjoying life together. We shared our experiences together and it was during this stable stage of our relationship that I can honestly say forged our friendship for life, even when conflict eventually would arise. We remained like that for several years.

A stable foundation had been laid and we were comfortable around one another. We continued to study together, played on various teams together, and our families even became great friends. On two different occasions, Ahmed took a holiday with my family, and I went with him and his family at least once that I can remember. Most every relationship will have its difficult times, and my friendship with Ahmed was no exception. While we had our minor disagreements during grade school, they were easily resolved as being over something petty.

As we entered high school, however, our friendship entered into a period of decline. Looking back upon it, different interests got in our way and we both lost sight of what friendship truly was about. In high school, we were often in different classes, separate from