"Ewww, she's got cooties!!!!"

George Washington once said that "true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to appellation". What's unfortunate is that many of us tend to dismiss the possibility of a friendship with someone else because of mere tribulations. We judge them for who they are. We judge them for what they believe in. We judge them for what they may become.We judge them for being better than us. But this is what makes who we are. The experiences that we've gone through with these oddballs is what shapes our perception of everything that surround us. Whether it be the one you just met, the one you share your secrets with, the one you consider your best friend, the one you've grown distant from, the one you can't stand, the one who puts down everything you propose, the one you have a crush on, the one you dated, the one who hurt you, the one you deceived and the one you took advantage of, all of them. So can you tell who someone is by who their friends are? No. You can tell who someone is by the mutual relationship that they have with their friends in that sense. We always hear the common gossip as it goes, "OOh, she's friends with so and so. She's probably a slut just like her!" The "I heard this" and "I heard that" only amount to misconception and a strong feeling of empowerment over the other person. Whether it be positive gossip or negative gossip, evaluating someone's worth along those lines just screams for the concept between right and wrong to be shot to shit.
The mentality here and the mentality in Haiti are quite different. Going back every summer made me realize how I've changed from the friends I hung out with down there to the ones I had and have since I moved to New York to the ones I've made in college. This is noticeable for anyone as they move on from high school onto college, or moving from one town to another. Several of us look back in our yearbooks and we ask ourselves, "What did I ever see in this kid?" or "God, I miss her!". Change happens. We just have to make sure it's for the better. We just have to remember that who we're with may be too weak to be someone of their own and the best we can do is be their Shaggy to their Scooby-Doo.