作者：北美考试教学中心 托福写作组 叶建萍

Friendship is undoubtedly central to our life, partly because this relationship will enrich our life and improve our well being or partly because we need to be cared and appreciated by others. In order to strengthen this bond, some people think that a friend in need is a friend indeed, yet I value those friends with whom we have fun.

Indeed, offering a helping hand to our friends when they encounter difficulties contributes to building closer friendship. In times of hardship and trouble, we, as intimate friends, try to become a shoulder for them to lean on or offer feasible solutions, and hopefully get them out of problems. On the other hand, are they really grateful for our thoughtfulness or efforts? If the friendship is based on the purpose to address problems, our friends, whenever confronting variously academic and daily problems, tend to rely on us and even take advantage of our resources. Consequently, chances are that they expect us to tackle problems and take our help for granted only because they want to slack off, which will definitively weaken the bond. Instead, we will feel relief when accompanying each others with a happy mood.

Spending quality time with friends makes a difference when it comes to happiness and cultivate a deeper relationship. Since these pleasant and precious memories will push people to carve out time or reschedule time to accompany their friends, it is  human nature to pursue happiness and avoid problems after all. To be specific, during the holiday, when we go for a bike ride or have a picnic together, the breathtaking scenery and harmonious atmosphere will relieve our work or study pressure and rejuvenate us. During the weekday, when we are criticized by our superiors or teachers, a little joke or sweet gift from our friends will calm us down and motivate us. Therefore, spending happy time with friends is one of the few pleasures in life that can cost you very little, but reward you substantially. As a result, the friendship is cemented and promoted.

All in all, friendship becomes stronger and is boosted only if people can gain happiness rather than looking for endless troubles.