[Shenandoah]

This is a hard question to answer simply because not every person has the same answer. My first instinct was to say: A friend helps you move your furniture if you need help... a best friend helps you hide the body. But smart ass isn't going to work here.

I understand what you're going through to a degree. I'm not a very social person by nature. Too much interaction makes me nervous and want to isolate myself for a bit. I don't do a lot of things normal 25 year olds tend to do. I don't have many friends and I can count on one hand how many I have outside my office. Are any of them good friends? Hm. I dunno. Sometimes, I want to beat the snot out of my coworkers because they say or do stupid or hurtful shit, but that's a part of life. But at the same time, they are the ones I can turn to if I need an ear.

So, what does make a real friend and not what I call a 'fair-weather friend'? And by the way, a 'fair-weather friend' is someone that doesn't want to hear the bad parts of life from you. They don't really want to hear you cry. And that is not a friend. When the tough gets going, a real friend will be there to help you through it, no matter what happens.

My two friends at work... they are sometimes noisy, irritating, aggravating, and stupid... but they are also great for listening to when I have a problem, invite me to go with them fishing and stuff, make me laugh, make me cry, and make me think. They tell me when I'm being stupid, just as I tell them. They groan at my bad jokes, knowing I do it because they're bad jokes. They like to heckle me and make me embarrassed. They're not nice sometimes. They aren't superficial.

One says whatever he thinks, damn the way it makes me feel. He chose not to give a fuck whether or not it makes another happy, but we also tell him that he needs to learn how to phrase things. By all means, speak your opinion, but don't do it quite so bluntly.

This, of course, doesn't necessarily apply to you. I'm the one that rarely gets angry to the point I'm pissed. Irritation is more my forte when it comes to my two friends. But you have to ask yourself, do you go through a full range of emotions with your friends and still hang with them because they're just that good to be around? And are they willing to help you stand up when you're down? Are they willing to give to you without expecting anything in return?