Lesson #5: It Really Is Quality, Not Quantity

Heading into college, there's kind of a bit of pressure to try to make new friends. Along with learning, people say college is about socializing and meeting new people. As a result, I was a little fascinated when I was talking to a really old friend, and she said something along the lines that making friends was overrated. After thinking about that, I've find that to be true. I've always wanted to have a lot of friends, but I've found that making more friends doesn't always lead to more happiness.

I'm going to talk about basketball for a moment. In my opinion, the greatest team ever assembled in NBA history was the 1996 Chicago Bulls, which had a record-breaking 72 wins, compared to only 10 losses. The star player on that team was a guy we all know, the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan. Along with that, Chicago had another All-Star in Scottie Pippen. Aside from those two, though, there wasn't anyone else on that team that a lot of people would have considered great, or close to an All-Star.

Still talking in terms of basketball, let's take a look at the 2011 Boston Celtics. On that team, there were 4 different All Stars (for those who don't know much about the NBA, there's 12 players on a roster on each All Star team), and  yet, those Celtics didn't even make it into the NBA Finals. If we go back a couple years earlier, we can take a look at the 2006 Detroit Pistons, who, like Boston, had 4 All Stars, but didn't make it to the NBA Finals either.

The explanation for this all has to do with the top. When a team's best player is the greatest player alive, that team is going to go far, just like Chicago always did with Michael Jordan. The Celtics and the Pistons, though they had many All Stars, didn't have a single player who probably would have been considered one of the top 20 players in the league. Even though basketball is a team sport, when the game really matters, a team will be carried and led by their best player. That's why Chicago, even devoid of as much great players, was so successful, because they were led by Michael Jordan. In contrast, Detroit and Chicago, even with all their great players, didn't have a truly great player to lead them to a championship.

All that I've just said may seem like a simplified lesson in basketball theory, but it really applies to life as well. We can make all the friends we want, but unless those friends are great and meaningful, then they'll have little impact in our lives. It's nice to have a lot of friends, but if we don't have that one or two friends that we can tell everything to, and that we would trust with our lives, we probably wouldn't be truly happy. That's probably why people are always wanting a boyfriend or a girlfriend, because then they have that one person they can always rely on.

To add to that, think of the show FRIENDS (that's one of my favorite shows, by the way). For those who don't know the show, it basically chronicles the life of this group of six friends. For most of my life, I've always  wanted to have a life just like those characters, but here's the thing about it: for most of the series, it never seemed like those guys had friends outside of their group of six! Yet, fans all around envied the characters, not for the number of friendships they had, but for the closeness they had with their small group.

Making friends is always fun, and it's always good for life. However, make the friendships meaningful. It's the special friends that'll truly impact your life, and I'd take a couple special friends than a hundred acquaintances any day!