One of my biggest values in life is friendship. I believe I developed the value of friendship early in life through the schools I attended. I come from a decently large suburb, but attended small private schools growing up. My grade always had about 50 kids in it from Kindergarten through high school. I went through all these years of school with basically the same group of kids, and we helped raise each other. We went through everything together and I knew them all well. The small school and class environment allowed me to get really close to my peers.
I look back on these years and the friendships I made as very special. I'm still very close with all of my friends from home because of the bonds and connections we have from growing up together. I've taken the value of friendship with me to college, where I have a new group of very close friends. Whenever I'm down or need someone to talk to, I can always look to my friends. I know that they have my back and I have theirs. If I need anything I can always look to them, and I really value the friendships that I've made.
I think it's really important that even while we're at school, with homework, exams, and the burden of figuring out our lives, that we still have friends to rely on and spend time with. There's more to life than just your job. Friends help make your life happier. In five years this value will be very important to me as I move to a new city with new people. I will need to make new friends who I will spend time with on weekends when not at work. I will also maintain the friendships I've made from home and from school, and will keep in touch with them regularly. Together, this will help me create a large network of friends all over the country.