MY FRIENDS AND

I
FRIENDS, THE NEW FAMILY?

17 A ADVANCED LEVEL 2

01/10/2010
 What matters in life

Have you ever thought how your life would be without trustworthy friends?
What would happen if we bottled all our feelings up? Who would cheer us
up when we were down-in-the-mouth.
Sincerely, I am terrified at the thought of being without friends. The world
as I know it would be a pipe dream. Thus, I try and try to protect the real
best friends, and not to attach importance to silly things.
I do like to have a small group of best friends and then “the others”.
Thereby, we know one another through and through since long time ago.
So, I confide in them and they rely on me. If I had to choose between
friendship or money, I would decide on the first one without any doubt.

Pep Cremades López.

Friends, the new family?

In present times, being an only child is getting more and more common. Broadly
speaking, we are used to a standard of living which is difficult to reach in a large family,
so the decision of having only one child is taken by a lot of young couples nowadays. It
is not a tragedy, but brothers and sisters are sometimes our confidants, those few
trustworthy people we can truly rely on. Obviously, we will always have our parents’
advice, but there are some worries that only a person of our own age could understand.
That is the way how our closer friends become members of our very family and, in that
sense we could say that friends are really the new family.

Asun Esquembre
2º NA 17A
MY FRIENDS AND I
Actually I have a lot of friends, however there is a question that
comes to my mind in phases, how many of them are really close to
me? That’s an interesting question, isn’t it? Well, at least for me…

Collecting too many friends isn’t an aim for me at all, although I must
to admit that nowadays it is really easy to keep in touch with so many
people such as workmates, classmates even sport mates as well.
Another current way of being in contact with my friends is using new
technologies; you know, by email, text messages and social
networking sites; nevertheless, it might be an exceedingly cool and
virtual way to do it.

I have some friends who I only see sometimes, just out of habit of
course. However, I consider myself a lucky man because I still keep
my childhood friends, so I’m utterly proud of this, we all are on the
same wavelength sharing hobbies like sports. I would like to meet
them every day; anyway, I can’t complain about this because we get
together on a regular basis to have a coffee or a beer so as to chat
about our things, fortunately, it’s enough for a person like me.

José Luis López 2nd A 17A

My friends and I

Nowadays, we gather a big group of friends through our lives from

different places; our work, studies, gyms, journeys, etc. We can feel that to keep
track of all these friendships is very difficult.

It is having and using a big variety of strategies that we can keep in touch
with all of our friends. We are living in the information and new technologies
society so, at this time, it is easier for us to keep in contact with all of them as
we have more resources than before.

Broadly speaking, what we look for in a friend is someone who has the
same interests. However, we are going to be more enriched if we share
different ideas with them. It is quite common that a couple finally get bored
because they do not have anything to talk about because they have run out of
things to say.

Therefore, do not worry about joining a big group of friends and enjoying
your conversations whether it is by mail or face to face.

Laura Bertomeu Escalante.

MY FRIENDS AND I

Nowadays, friends are an utterly important part of our lives.

In the main, there are many situations that we need our family to rely on
and confide in them our problems. Nevertheless, are we sure that they are
going to understand us?

Friends are the ones you know that are going to put up our wrongs, and
that’s because we spend with them most of our time. For instance, if you try
to confide something to your parents, they could get in a flap instantly, as
they don’t really know what’s happening in your mind.

Therefore, we prefer our friends to be our confidants far more than our
relatives. Maybe, that’s the reason why it is said that friends are becoming
the new family.

Daniel Orenes.
My friends and I

During my childhood, I met my school friends. We grew up together and it is

due to the incredible experiences that we lived that I have a special affection for them.

But, it´s true that nowadays, the friends who I usually see more often, are the
people who I met at the university; with them I spend most of my free time. The reason
is that we have the same interests and our jobs are mostly similar.

Some of my childhood friends chose other path of life and although I keep in
touch thanks to mobile phone or the Internet, I don’t usually go for a coffee with them
as usually as I do it with my friends from university.

Rosa Martín Gomis

MY FRIENDS AND I

Firstly, I need to explain what the Word FRIEND means: “A

person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection
and loyalty”. According to this definition I only have five
friends. Nevertheless, the number of my acquaintances is
extremely high. I consider myself really lucky to be able to keep
in touch with most of them. Even though, after not having talked
for months, we can speak as if we met every week.

However and although I get on well with them, if I need to

unburden myself to somebody I’d always choose one of my
friends I mean, one of my older friends.

Eventually, I can openly say that I am quite proud of having as

many friends as people who I can rely on with.

SILVIA ASENCIO MORENO

2ºNA (17A)
FRIENDS, THE NEW FAMILY?

Lately, our lifestyle has been increasingly changing family

relationships. Sometimes out of necessity, sometimes by an
oversight, many parents seem to have forgotten the nurture of
their children and that emptiness might have been occupied by
friends. They feel on the same wavelength, people to have fun
with, to rely on or to unburden themselves on sometimes, and it
could even be legitimate and proper.

However, I don’t think friends can replace the role of the family. In
the end, in spite of having family squabbles, sometimes boring
family get-togethers or even if you’re considered to be a black
sheep or a rotten apple, they are your own flesh and blood. And
when things go wrong out of the blue, you quite often realize that
there’s no one around to support you, apart from your family.

Give them credit: that’s my point of view.

Paco Carmona
Friends, the new family?

One of the most controversial topics these days is “whether friends

are the new family”. To begin with, according to Giddens, a British
sociologist, societies have been changing since the late 70’s, so
relationships with friends and family have also been changing.

Firstly, families are currently composed by fewer members than many

years ago and friends are far more important. Apart from that, people
frequently move to other places, far away from parents and in many
cases friends can make up for their functions.

On the other hand, the population related to the Catholic Church does
not agree with this position. In fact, they believe that just the family
can solve the problems. It is the family the group that can just
prevent broken homes.

To sum up, this is not an easy issue because the positions are not
clear at all. However, it is essential to find points in common. I
strongly believe that people should be open-minded and had better to
accept different ways of coexistence.

José Luis S. Marín

My Friends and I.
Having a lot of friends is quite common now, but if
we think about who our real friends are, I mean,
friends that call you often and do things with you on
a regular basis, we have to recognize that they are
only a few.
My best friends are my older friends that I have
known since I was at school, and with I have been in
contact almost every day.
People today make friends easily, especially talking
on the Internet but for me they are acquaintances
and most of them don´t have anything important to
talk to you, only unimportant things.
It seems that people have lost sight of what a
friendship is, friends are forever, so love them!.

Marinela Ródenas.
FRIENDS: A NEW FAMILY?

Friends aren’t a new family nowadays, this is what I think! However, the
traditional concept of family has gone for good.

What happens is that the world has changed in the latest years and families
don’t live together any more, people have to move to find a job, and this is
the reason why most of them have to substitute their relatives by friends,
neighbours or other acquaintances who live near them.

Time is another reason, every member of the family works and, when we
have free time, we have plenty of social engagements to cover it, and
sometimes we prefer spending this free time with friends who are on the
same wavelength.

Nevertheless, I think the family is the most important thing and we can’t
easily get rid of family’s ties.

By: Dori Ibáñez Amoros

MY FRIENS AND I

It was my sister who was my best friend when I was a teenager, however I
prefer being with friends with whom I have got more in common.

Even though I have lots of acquaintances, there are very few people who
could be called a friend of mine; four, five or six at maximum and, every
one of them is my favourite for different reasons.

Mateu is my friend because I love having a good time with him having a
good lunch or a coffee; besides, Piedad is one of my favourites because she
is always ready to help me and do me a favour. Paqui and Dori are always
ready to listen to me, and they are the best ones to unburden myself to.

By and large, I think friendship is very important, and there is nothing better
than a good friend.

By: Dori Ibañez Amoros

My friends and I

If there’s something I enjoy most is going out with my friends. It has been very difficult
for me to find my group of friends. I could say that before going to university I hadn’t a
real and fixed group, only my best friend. Maybe because I am in a new city and my
family is not with me, I realised that for surviving the best thing I could do was being
more open with the people around me, so now I’m not as shy as I was 4 years ago.

Since I’m studying at the university here in Elche I have found very good friends, so
now I have different groups. First of all, I want to speak about my friends from Alcoy,
my home town. It is strange that now after leaving Alcoy I have more friends there. My
friends are all girls, seven, but I really get on very well with 3 of them, I think that we
have similar thoughts in spite of studying different degrees. Jessy and Andrea study
Engineering, Sara Publicity and I study Journalism. My best friend is Noelia who wants
to be a clerk. She is a little bit crazy like me and she has always problems to decide
things in her life. She is completely different from me, so maybe this is the main reason
why we get on very well. And on the other hand I must speak about my friends in
Elche. I have a very good friend from the first day of class, he is Salva, and his passion
is journalism. He is curious about everything and has taught me a lot. I met Andrea
through him and she became a good friend of mine as well, apart from Rubén. And of
course, my two flatmates who are my family in Elche, they are my friends too,
especially one of them who has became as the sister I never had.

I think I am very lucky to have all these people around me, I’ll never feel alone.

Mireia Pascual
MY FRIENDS AND I.

We are a group of six friends who met in 1980 when we were teenagers. It is
Guardamar the place where we have spent the weekends and the summer holidays since then.
Currently, we live in cities such as Madrid, Alicante, Cartagena, Molina and Elche. My best
friend is the one from Alicante. In spite of the distance, we meet most of weekends.
I consider we are pretty close friends. We share a lot of activities, for instance, sports,
travelling, clubbing... In fact, we had a nice football team in the 80’s decade with huge
followings in the village. Besides, we used to go to clubs and, so we have a lot of stories from
our teens.
Perhaps, the worse quality we have as a group is that some of us are a little conceited.
In conclusion, I am very happy with my loyal friends. But there are always are things to
improve.

José Lorenzo Rodríguez Redondo 2NA 17A

 FRIENDS, THE NEW FAMILY?

Years ago, as a rule, FRIENDS and FAMILY were two completely different
things.

People used to live near their relatives and friends. They worked, married
and had children in the same city where they were born.

In my opinion, they could choose between unloading their current affairs,

everyday worries and problems, on to their friends, or unburdening
themselves about serious issues to members of their families.

However, nowadays, people usually move from the city where they grew up
and their older friends and relatives live to the city where they find a job,
and sometimes , there is a long distance between both cities.

So, more often than not, people find it easier to trust workmates or confide
in just good friends more than in members of their families.

To sum up, during the last years, the situation has been changing and,
nowadays, FRIENDS have become THE NEW FAMILY.

JOSE ANTONIO MARTINEZ ORTEGA

 My friends and I

Well, I have some friends. The majority of them are girls, because when I
was at high-school, my class was full of girls except one boy and me. So we
were 2 boys and 26 girls. But my really close best friends are 2 boys.
Manuel and Miguel.

I met them at primary school, when I was 4 years old. We were always
together, did homework together, grew up together… you know.

When we finished the E.S.O. we separated to different high-schools. Miguel

and I went to Misteri d’Elx, and Manuel went to Tirant lo Blanc. We only met
at weekends, and we started to have more friends apart from us. I met 2
girls in my new class at high-school that I consider good friends. Emma and
Ana. They are a bit different from Miguel and Manuel, but I like them too.

When I meet Emma and Ana, we usually go for a walk, to have a drink, to do
some shopping, or we just spend the evening watching a good film at home.
They are quite funny and I laugh a lot.

With Manuel and Miguel I normally play football, tennis, sports in general, or
just play on the Play Station and have a pizza all night. We speak about
everything and before leaving we decide when to meet next time.
 MY FRIENDS AND I

I consider myself a friendly person. I’ve got friends wherever I’ve

studied. Some of them are in my life from nursery or school times; of
course, these are the oldest ones. Others I met them at high school or
university. At least half of them share my interests: doing outdoor activities
in the mountain, having some beers after the cinema or joining an NGO.

Friends are an important part of my life. However, it’s not the only
one. I have my family, my workmates… and myself. We usually forget to
mention ourselves when describing our lives, and it’s really amazing to
spend some time reading a book, for instance. So you have to think that the
most important thing in life must be yourself. That’s my opinion.