friendship is a kind of human relation. it is a human instinct to make friends. when in trouble, we need friends to offer us encouragement and help. with success achieved, we also need friends to share our joys. it is hard to imagine what life would be like without friendship.

　　a young man who aspires to make his mark in the world must earnestly and unselfishly seek the friendship of others. but how does a person come to understand the true meaning of friendship? the first twenty years of our lives teach us much about choosing friends. a person arrives at his definition of friendship through trial and error. he makes acquaintances and then begins to develop friendship. as he finds friends, he is sometime pleasantly satisfied but sometimes disappointed.

　　from my own experience, i have learned to look for several qualities in a new acquaintance. if he has them, or seem likely to develop them, we may become friends. first, it seems to me that a friend should be honest. next, a perhaps tolerance. true friendship must be sincere, and unconditional, based on mutual understand, not on mutual benefit. real friendship should be able to stand all sorts of test.