Good Friends and Good Times

I've been talking a lot lately about how to obtain the greatest college experience from studying to enjoying the beautiful city we live in. I've also mentioned the importance of friends, but I really want to exaggerate this aspect of the college experience.

Like most of us, I assume, we've gained many "friends" at the beginning of college. By "friends" I mean a bunch of people that are willing to collaborate with you to get a bunch of people together to go out and party. However, as college goes on, and you keep maturing, you realize these aren't really the type of people who bring you up, or bring out the best in you. I think I have reached the point this semester where I have realized just that. My first few semesters here at city college I have to admit, I too, was one of the people who got caught up with artificial friends and thinking that all the partying and all the artificiality was such a great aspect of college life. Because I have started to realize that you need to surround yourself with people who lift you up, and keep you positive and motivated in  life, I've began to make some changes.

Although I still like to go out and party and still love being social, I've began to loosen the strings with people who are of no benefit to me. I've been hanging out with people who compliment my life and care about my wellbeing and let me tell you, I have been so much happier and so much more motivated to do well, not only in school, but also with taking care of myself. I've also realized that those who are your real friends will want to do more with you than solely get drunk and walk around to random parties. For example, this last weekend we got a group of our close friends together and all went camping for a night out at El Refugio Beach. (If you have never been camping out here in Santa Barbara, I highly recommend it. It is another one of those beautiful and extremely fun things that there are to do in Santa Barbara.)

All I'm saying here is that you need to surround yourself with people who will want to hangout with you for more than your 'under the influence self', people who enjoy you for who you are and want to get to know you without having any ulterior motives. I mean of course you and your friends are all going to have nights where you go out and party, but you just need to find the ones who are there to go get you some breakfast in the morning (and maybe bring you some advil) ;) Those are the ones you wanna keep around.