Going along with my other post, Life Balance, friendships are part of the balance equation.
Friendships help you in several areas including growth, recreation and decompression. We will touch on each of these in a moment.
There are varying degrees of friends and each plays a role in your life and, depending on you, can mold you into a new person (good or bad). Close friends are like family and can sometimes actually be closer to you than your own siblings. I have found it funny that an opinion a friend may give can match that of your immediate family yet people give that one more weight in accepting it.
People feel more at ease with friends than with family, especially when telling them certain things and are more themselves than when they are with family.
