John Kaplan Alison Smith ENC 1101.241 September 29, 2008 {draw:frame} Contributor: John Kaplan Location: Winter Springs, FL Country: United States of America Series: Contemporary Friendship, the Quarter Stone of a Happy Life Throughout my entire life, friendships have come and gone, but there has always been that special person in my life that I can run to for anything, that person who no matter what is always there for you. They are anything and everything I could ever ask in a friend. I believe that a friendship is a constant range of peaks and valleys, and that you must accept everyone for who they are. Frank A. Clark once said, “A pathway without obstacles is a pathway that does not go anywhere.” I believe that hardships in a friendship only make it stronger. On a more personal note, my girlfriend and I have gotten into plenty of little disputes about trivial things, which probably would not have mattered five minutes from then, but those minute arguments taught me so much. I learned what makes her happy, what makes her sad, what makes her laugh and what makes her cry. I am not saying that these fights played a significant role in the success of our relationship, but more as a lesson learned. There is nothing more sincere in a friendship, than forgiveness. I believe that in a friendship, forgiveness is vital and you must accept one another for who you really are. A wise man by the name of Chris Carter-Scott once said, “Anger only makes you smaller, while forgiveness makes you bigger than you once were.” This quote plays such an enormous part in all of my friendships. I believe that one must always forgive, and never take a friendship for granted. When I was sixteen years old, my best friend, Jeff Einhouse, experimented with smoking marijuana, I personally saw this as if it was the end of the world. I excluded him from my life like he had a contagious disease that I did not want to catch. I made the mistake of not accepting him for who he was, and...