Newsletter (2017-2018) December 2017 Newsletter | Page 16
...or further expand your social network, even if these friendships will be more distant?
with whom to share your happiness and sad-
ness. There are a lot of things that you can do
together to enjoy life. Your laughs and smiles
become pleasant memories, which are good
gifts for future to review. However, this kind of
relationship does not consider other people’s
well-being. When other people want to become
friends with you, although you want to become
friends with them as well, they will feel isolated
from you, as you and your “guimi” have more
common interests that others may not share.
Additionally, you will find it boring to be part
of this small social circle of you and your only
friend. You would be in a social bubble and it
becomes difficult for you to explore the colour-
ful outside world. As time passes, you will feel
tired of playing with only one other person, and
there some potential troubles may arise between
you. When these accumulated problems burst,
the friendship between you could be complete-
ly corrupted. Therefore, it is true that having a
“guimi” is good for you to enrich your life, but
there exists the risk that you’ll feel bored or that
your friendship will breakdown.
On the other hand, maintaining weaker friend-
ships with many individuals could be seen as a
strategy that focuses on building social capital,
helping you deal smoothly with academic and
social affairs. This strategy could save enough
more time for you to do what you personally en-
joy by having friends assist you in your work.
This type may be more suitable for who just
want to make superficial friendships with oth-
ers. However, this kind of student may have a
hard time developing a sense of belonging. By
not maintaining strong friendship with others,
although others may assist you during group
project, when you encounter trouble, you might
not have someone you can truly trust to turn to.
These friends will rarely help you, because your
distant friendship as means that there is no rea-
son for them to support you when it is inconve-
nient for them.
I believe that it is better to forge both kinds of
friendships with others in order to maintain a
more balanced social life. Make deep friendships
with one or a select few and maintain more shal-
low relationships with several others. Further-
more, it’s important to manage the extent of each
of your friendship. If you have an extremely
strong friendship, be sure not to make others feel
excluded. As for more distant friendships, you
should not just take advantage of your friends,
but you should share yourself and help others
wholeheartedly. In reality, the situation is more
complicated. Based on personal preference,
choose the approach what you think is best. If
you meet a person who you can get along well
with or with whom you share the same interests
and values, cherish them. It may be the destiny
for you to be friends.
June is a girl from a
mountain town studying
Greater China Studies.
She is a nature enthusiast.
17
DECEMBER 2017