Making Your Family/Friend Decision

Ugh, what do I do now? There are problems no matter what I do! Friends or family; I just can’t decide. Hey I’m only fifteen so why does it matter? I’ll just wait till I’m older and then decide for reals. But the only problem is that it is time to decide, and to choose the right one.

Almost every teen has had a family/friendship dilemma in their complicated lives. We just can’t decide whom to choose all the time. Everyone knows family is more important than friends right? But we can never choose family over friends. Quote from Dr. Shrindler, “Believe it or not, everyone has an inner love that can emit only a certain amount. It’s your choice who to show your sincerity but nobody has an ‘infinite’ amount of ‘love’ choose carefully.”

In 8th grade, my friends and I were psyched about the weekend where we could hang out at the lake for the entire day. Sounds fun? But surely enough my Dad tells me it’s my aunt’s birthday and we had to go out to celebrate. There was just no way out of this without a huge argument and fight.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everyone would be bummed to go to their aunt’s birthday party but I sure wasn’t. Family is important and a bigger deal than anything you will encounter in your lives but doesn’t the same thing go for your friends?

There was a poll online that titled, “If you had to choose between losing your family or losing your friends, which would you choose?” After 22 threads were posted, the results were: 9% said family, 9% said they don’t care or cannot choose, and 82% said friends of course! Considering your entire life this is an honest answer, but I bet 99% of these people would enjoy chilling out at a lake with their friends rather than going to their aunt’s birthday party!

Two years ago, I had a friend named Brandon Chang who I did everything with. Slowly but surely, I became less social with my family as I devoted myself to this friendship. We went camping together, skiing, and hung out all the time. Quickly, I became isolated from my family to the point where I disliked talking to them.

This went on for a month or two… I can’t even remember. I was still friends with Brandon but all of the sudden he moved to New York. Maybe I deserved it; I don’t know. But what I do know is that I became fond of my family once again. Things went well and we lived happily ever after because that is just how families work. But what if this wasn’t the case?

Friend-related issues are the 2nd highest cause of depression. Depression can lead to many things such as suicide. Suicide is a scary thought and 97% of depressed people have thought about it. 15% have done it! There are 18.8 million depressed people in the U.S., Four million of which are from friend-related issues. So this means 600,000 people in the U.S. kill themselves from this problem?

By the term, “Friend-related issues,” I believe most of it was caused by an argument or sadness you felt with a friend but didn’t have a family to turn back to. I mean, just imagine yourself losing your best friends all at once and coming back home. Anyone would feel depressed but with a little help from your family you’re back on your feet. But if there was no one to help you, you wouldn’t feel so good… depressed perhaps?

I may have made the impression that friends aren’t important. STOP! Friends are awesome, they can cheer you up, make you laugh, and make you cry, all at the same time! Friends are what my life is based off of sometimes. We, as teenagers have to make the right choices between friends and family. It will be hard no doubt, but we can do it! Friends and families are equally important which require the equal amount of attention. For people who care too much for their friends, go and have fun with your family. Tell them that they are cool and ask them if they want to watch a movie and vise versa. Never forget about your friends, but at the same time, never forget about family either.