Adrian White

“Hey, let’s hit the club up. Let’s go to the bar.”

Every weekend I have to deal with this. My friends only want to hang for entertainment. This is understandable.

Hey, I‘m an interesting dude.

I don’t mind going out to a nightclub like The Basement every now and then or chilling at the bar on the weekend. But when it seems that my friends only call me when they want to have fun, I become irritated.

You know, I feel like there are other aspects to my personality that are interesting.

For example, I write poetry from time to time and I like to take walks with someone I care about early in the morning.

I know it all sounds kind of sensitive (back up off me!), but these things also help to make the sum of me. Ask me about my hopes, dreams, and aspirations.

What in the world? Better yet, why in the world is it so difficult for an individual to go on to the next level of adulthood? Why is it so hard for us to attain success?

I am here to inform you of the disheartening truth.

Your friends are holding you back from adult maturity, advancement and success.

What is a friend? Let’s have the book answer to that first.

A friend is someone with whom you share a mutual affection or regard. A friend is a sympathizer or a helper. This definition sounds really good.

If many of us had this type of friend in our lives, then we would definitely be on our way to all of our hopes and dreams going about 55-60 miles per hour down the road of success. Too bad this is not the type of friend that many of us have the pleasure of knowing. According to this definition, our friends should sympathize with us when we are facing problems that seem insurmountable.

Our friends should help us reach our goals. Our friends should push us to create new dreams for ourselves.

Let’s face it. Life is hard. It’s even harder if you don’t have people in your life that care about you.

We need people to congratulate us when we do well on a test, win a scholarship, or score the winning touchdown in the football game.

I’m going to now ask one of the stupidest questions that I could possibly think of. Humor me.

Why are you in college?

It’s really not that stupid of a question, though, is it?

An individual’s worth seems to be based on how loud they are in the cafeteria, or, how well they freak someone at a party, not on how may A’s they receive in a semester.

There is one table in the middle of cafeteria that competes to be the loudest everyday. That’s their goal.

They sit in the same spot, and just scream with laughter. They yell across the cafeteria. I’ve actually listened in to some of their jokes.

They are so lame. Why are people so lame?

The answer is obvious. Their friends push them to beg for attention.

We congratulate people for being the class clown, or wearing the most constricting jeans in public.

Why?

What I’m trying to say is that we have to figure out what a true friend is. We all must change our value system.

We need to value accomplishment. Stop hanging around people that hold you back.

Get the metaphorical monkey off of your back. Start to choose friends that can mix both fun and professionalism. Choose friends that push you on to success.

Stop being a STANKMONSTA!