How do you think your interests and personality might be different without your friends’ influence?
Think about a close friend or a small group of friends. How are you alike? How are you different? What interests or opinions do you share?
Do you think this friend or group of friends has ever influenced you to do something you otherwise wouldn’t, whether that’s trying a new activity, changing an opinion you held, or just helping you think differently about something? How? What, if anything, in the essay reminds you of an experience you have had? Is there anything in this essay that you disagree with? What, if so? How are your friends influencing or encouraging you right now? The essay states that our friends shape how we see ourselves and the world as well as what we want from life. They can even “call forth parts of ourselves that don’t yet exist.” Give some examples of what you’ve witnessed or experienced yourself that support or contradict these claims.
What do you think of the essay’s claims about friends who have different socioeconomic backgrounds influencing each other without necessarily meaning to do so? Have you ever witnessed or experienced this phenomenon yourself? Mr. Brooks describes being a camper and then an employee at a camp he describes as “the best cross-class community I’ve ever been in.” What group have you been part of that compares with this and has encouraged you to develop “social range”? How valuable do you think social range is?
Do you think it’s better to have friends who are as alike as possible or friends who are quite different? Why? Many years from now, how do you think you’ll answer this question: “How did the friends I had during childhood and adolescence shape my life and make me who I am today?” What lessons has friendship taught you? What’s the biggest life lesson you got from Friends? What lessons have you learned from friendships that have ended? if you had to share the one most important life lesson that you've learned the hard way in your life, what would it be? What important life lessons have you learned as you've gotten older? What's a piece of wisdom or life lesson you want to share with others, even if there isn't a specific reason to do so? What’s a “wise” life lesson you have learnt?
Do you think this friend or group of friends has ever influenced you to do something you otherwise wouldn’t, whether that’s trying a new activity, changing an opinion you held, or just helping you think differently about something? How? What, if anything, in the essay reminds you of an experience you have had? Is there anything in this essay that you disagree with? What, if so? How are your friends influencing or encouraging you right now? The essay states that our friends shape how we see ourselves and the world as well as what we want from life. They can even “call forth parts of ourselves that don’t yet exist.” Give some examples of what you’ve witnessed or experienced yourself that support or contradict these claims.
What do you think of the essay’s claims about friends who have different socioeconomic backgrounds influencing each other without necessarily meaning to do so? Have you ever witnessed or experienced this phenomenon yourself? Mr. Brooks describes being a camper and then an employee at a camp he describes as “the best cross-class community I’ve ever been in.” What group have you been part of that compares with this and has encouraged you to develop “social range”? How valuable do you think social range is?
Do you think it’s better to have friends who are as alike as possible or friends who are quite different? Why? Many years from now, how do you think you’ll answer this question: “How did the friends I had during childhood and adolescence shape my life and make me who I am today?” What lessons has friendship taught you? What’s the biggest life lesson you got from Friends? What lessons have you learned from friendships that have ended? if you had to share the one most important life lesson that you've learned the hard way in your life, what would it be? What important life lessons have you learned as you've gotten older? What's a piece of wisdom or life lesson you want to share with others, even if there isn't a specific reason to do so? What’s a “wise” life lesson you have learnt?
