Something that changed me and let me be the person who I am today is friendship. Friends can raise you high above the skies. Or, they can pull you down under the ground. My parents are very close to me. They have enough knowledge and awareness from people around us. My father advised me every school year that I needed to keep enough distance from others. My father said to me, “Abdulelah, never go out with bad friends. They can affect you in a small matter of time. I know you’re smart. You will know the right thing from the wrong thing. “I knew that my father trusted me because what he had taught me.
My mother told me, “Abdul, focus on your schoolwork. Do not give up no matter what around you tells you. If you work hard today; tomorrow will be comfortable to you. ” Every time I get the feeling of quitting school, I remember my parents’ words. I try not to hang out with bad friends. For example, if they were doing something bad and got caught by the police, I would go to jail with them because they caught me with them. I tried my best to keep away from them. This way they did not enter my private space. My father told me about friends and how friends can change a person from good to bad in a matter of short time.
I was shocked. How come students do that to others? Their basic education is not built right. When I entered high school, I had the knowledge and the “vaccine” to choose my friends. My class was about 15 students. I only ended up with 3 friends and they are my best friends. When I was in school, my classmates were using inappropriate language. They had cursed others, and they had taught others bad language. That gave me a lesson that I should never trust any of my classmates who seem kind and lovely to me. I have to sit with them to see how they think and how they talk.
One time, they asked me, “Hey Abdul, we should get along one day” But for me, it was a very bad idea. If they were doing all that in my school, what were they going to do outside the school? On the other hand, there are good friends I have met in my life. I try not to lose those friends, because they have white heart. They wish good for others. They are generous. If I make a mistake, they tell me the mistake I did so I do not do it again. I try to look for friends like them. Because, they think the way I think, they talk the way I talk, and they do everything without being inappropriate.
I love to hang out with them because I will learn from them and they will learn from me. As time pass by, I realized those people, who are bad friends, are not responsible for what they are. When they were young, their parents did not raise their children in a good manner. So, they would go to unknown people on the streets and talk to them and learn from them. Children at some point need their parents close by to ask them and learn from them. When their parents realize what wrong behavior their children have learned, they would punish them for something the children are not guilty of.
Then, who is guilty? The answer is the parents. Bad friends don’t want peace to people. They are bad, so they want their friends to be bad, too. I have a big experience with friends. I visited a lot of countries and I saw how bad friends treated others. When I was in Morocco, I called bad friends “mentally ill. ” Because, if they had minds they would have used them. Those” mentally ill friends” were in my school. Some of my classmates were very bad students. The others were quiet. So, on my first week at school, I saw my best friend got into a fight with 12 grade boys.
The problem was my friend asked nicely to pass through the hall. The 12 grade boys said ” No you cannot because you are nerd. ” When I heard that; I immediately stepped in to help my poor fellow. I walked to them with anger on my face and I told them “It does not matter how strong you are if you do not have a mind to use it probably. ” After I said that, most of the students circled around us to attend the fight. The principle heard the noises. The principle instantly came and stopped the fight and took all the people who were involved to his office. We explained what had happened and made us write a pledge.
I tell my friends and advise them to use their brains. Because if they are not going to use. Someone else wishes to use it. In conclusion, I really thank my parents for giving me enough knowledge about the importance of selecting good friends. If they hadn’t given me the enough knowledge, I would not be studying outside my country with a scholarship. I would be in my country hanging out with friends. I would have played PlayStation with my friends from midnight until morning. I wouldn’t have the interest for studying in college. Even if I had the interest to study, I would not study a challenging major.
