Friendship knows no limits
True friends stick together when homework piles up and punishments are delved out. Their loyalty in tough times makes it that much easier for a struggling student to find his or her center of balance.
They’re the ones who can communicate with one glance from across the room, who blackmail each other with embarrassing middle school anecdotes, and who know each other’s parents better than their own.
Sophomores Dilawer Siddiqui and Shahzada Khan have been best friends for almost fourteen years. Since childhood, they have shared many exciting moments.
“We were known as the little trouble makers, all the adults knew us but never hated us,” Siddiqui said.
Even with fun memories solidifying their relationship, difficulties arose while juggling lives outside antics at the mosque.
“[During] middle school, we only saw each other sometimes until the end of eighth grade,” Siddiqui said. “I missed getting into trouble with him, having punishments together, and joking around laughing.”
At the end of the eighth grade, Siddiqui and Khan joined a youth group at their mosque, which allowed them to meet more frequently at their previous, favorite spot for hijinks. Now reunited at Peninsula, the duo’s friendship only continues to flourish.
“It’s not really hard to balance it, honestly,” Siddiqui said. “[Even when we’re not together] we’ll text each other with something like, ‘Oh hey, go on Xbox’ and we’ll play.”
Another pair, sophomores Genna Abele and Brittany Scott, have managed to keep their friendship alive for more than ten years. The two have faced multiple hardships together as a team rather than allowing negative incidents to affect their friendship.
“We met on the first day of kindergarten because we were sitting next to each other,” Abele said. “There were only 32 people in our class so it was hard to grow apart [once you became friends].”
Fortunately for the two, their friendship focuses more on providing support for each other through difficult times rather than allowing issues to divide them.
Although increasing numbers of students in their classes lead to making new friends, Abele and Scott managed to incorporate new friends with old and always supporting them.
“In fifth grade, this girl that used to be my friend bullied me,” Abele said. “[Brittany] always defended me and listened to me whenever I wanted to talk about it.”
Throughout the ten years, Abele and Scott have developed their friendship to a point in which they completely trust one another. They consider honesty to be a huge foundation of their successful friendship.
“Without honesty, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no true companionship. And without true companionship, there can never be love,” Abele said.
