I have never been one to believe in friendship, nor have I ever doubted that in a friendship, two people are together simply because each of them can gain something from the other, for their own personal interests. I still believe that to a certain degree. However, despite what friendship has come to mean in our world today, I can now see the purpose and value of it. There are things that happen in our lives, that just beg to be talked about with someone else someone who knows how you think and who understands you. For this and in most cases, a partner is the ideal person for this task. What happens though when the thoughts concern the partner? When you've isolated yourself from the rest of the world in order to devote yourself to them and have maintained nothing but shallow relationships to people you would like to call friends, what happens when you can't talk to your partner about the problem? What happens when you would like the input of someone else? What do you do when you wake up one and feel an extreme urge to just spill everything out to a friend, only to realize you have none? Thus today I learn the true value of close friendship, regardless of how selfish it may be at its very core. Strangers can only give you so much advice; they can only judge by what they see at that instant, without a sense of the bigger picture. Family is also sometimes a little too distant though we exist in the same house. That leaves only the shallow friendships that COULD bear the weight of the situation, and through that they could become stronger, but they would soon fade away again. Since the stronger bond would arise from a moment of strong need, once that moment has passed, there will be little reason to maintain that relationship to its new-found depth. True friendships are most often formed during the years of early childhood, where there is a degree of purity in the soul not found at any later age. Once you are treading into adult-hood, personal interests are growing and you are in the world of 'every man for himself'. It becomes very hard to open yourself to people you do not know because those very people you attempted to trust could very well turn on you and used the information they gained about you to beat you down. I've probably strayed off the initial topic, buut I felt all this had to be said. I'm sorry if I bored you to death, but I guess if I had you wouldn't be reading this part now. Needless to say, this is nothing but my perception and beliefs on the subject. If you feel differently, I'd love to hear your views too