Friendship College Essay

What is a home? A home to me is a place where you are comfortable and safe. My safe place is with my friends, away from my house. No one can harm me when I am with them, because they are the ones who care about me most and are by my side no matter what. When I am at other people’s homes, I feel more comfortable, than I do at my own.

My mom and my dad split up when I was 18 months old, and I lived with my mom but still got to see my dad every other weekend. Before I was three, I moved from New Milford to Danbury six times. My mom had moved in with her boyfriend, so she left me at my grandmother’s house for almost three months before she finally came back to get me. Even though I was so young at the time, I still feel like she did not want me around, and that pain still gets to me now. I have problems trusting my mom now because she lets all the guys, who are in her life, control what my younger brother and I do; she is our mother and those guys are only her boyfriends. She is the one who is supposed to tell us what to do and care more about us more than them.

When I am with my friends, I feel like they care so much about what happens to me and what I do. They always help me with my problems when I need them the most. I trust them because they keep my secrets and are not so quick to judge me because of my mistakes. We can have our fun times and make the worst moments the best moments. I feel like I can be myself when I am with them and they can be themselves around me. When I’m at my friends house, their parents treat me nicely and I just get this feeling that makes me feel safer there.

I never thought I could really find a person who really got me and truly understood me, until the beginning of my junior year when I met my friend Marshanti. She is one of my craziest friends, but also one of my most caring friends. When I’m with her, there is nothing stopping us, it’s us against the world. This one time Marshanti and I had gone to Big Y to get some “munchies” for the night, and the whole time we spent it laughing like crazy and bumping into shelves causing mischief. When my boyfriend and I had broken up, she was the one who talked to me and wanted to know everything that happened and see if I was alright. She never took sides and she never said that either of us were wrong, which was exactly what I needed to hear.

It hurts me sometimes when I think that I am a better person now because of my friends and not my parents. I learned a lot from my friends and that’s why I consider them a family to me. One day I will have a better life and it will never be how mine is now. I have grown stronger since I became friends with these people that I care so much about. Some days I wish I did not have the past I had and that the people in it did not exist. Then I think to myself, would I still be the person I am today if it were not for that past and for those people? Would I still be friends with these people if I did not have that past? My home is where my friends are and it will always be that way, that is the best thing I could ever ask for.