Friend Compare and Contrast

Compare and Contrast: A Friend His name is ______. If you ever met this individual you would certainly have a good or bad impression of him. I’ve basically grown up with him. We attended the same school all from elementary through high school, grew up in the same neighborhood. You could say that we both had a common thing. I’m not sure if meeting this person was a way to teach me a few things or not. I always wanted to think that him and I would get along and be good friends. Maybe that’s the reason why I have kept him my friend for so long. Now days he resides as my roommate, I don’t know if that decision was a mistake or not. Time will tell or maybe it has already. His views are not like mine at all. We we’re brought up completely different as I was taught under a Latin background and him... Well, that’s a different story. I’ll explain about us: he and I have completely different personalities, different and same friends and diverse ethics about education. I’ll explain this through. For example, I believe that personality is one if the main things that leads a relationship, even just as friends. When you think of someone you want to be friends with you think of the same things you might share with that person. To me, personality is one of the main ones. When I met Matt I was in 4th grade, a young child, you could say. I didn’t really know much about how a person should be or how he should act as I was just growing up. He seemed like an okay kid and since we lived in the same neighborhood and hung out with the same friends I decided to start talking to him to see how things went. At the beginning everything was just dandy but as time progressed I started to notice him being a controlling, self-righteous individual. His personality was completely different than mine. I was always a caring person but he… he was more of a “me first, me second and me third” kind of guy. For example, we always used to play football at my house, a quick game of 5 on 5. This might seem silly but when I saw him tackle someone I always used to see how much of a better person he wanted to be than the one being tackled. I could see that he was trying to show the other how much of greater man he was. After he would tackle someone he would slap them and say something rude or racist. According to him… anyone that isn’t white isn’t anything at all. It might seem harsh to say but to me that’s what he comes off as. I’m the complete opposite. Sure I’m competitive too, but not to that level. If I was to beat someone at anything of course I would gloat and such but I would never demine that person to the point where the individual would feel less than me. It’s a passive personality, me, to a very aggressive one, him. I wasn’t the only one who would think about him this way, there were also our friends. Since Matt and I lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same school, we were bound to share the same friends. We were all group and till this day we still call ourselves “the farms boys”. Sharing the same friends brought upon me him talking behind my back, and others too. Since we all always used to hang out with each other there wasn’t much I could do. I couldn’t just leave him and the others behind, I wouldn’t have friends! But now I see that he was no friend at all. Some of my friends that were also buddies of him viewed him as I started too, mean. Sure the kid had his good days and bad but his bad were a lot more than his good. My friend Dalton who was also friends with him till this day thinks Matt just thinks for himself. I agree completely. Although we shared the same friends, we treated them differently and vice-versa. The ones that would hang out with Matt the most, would view him as a superior you could say but still saw that aggressiveness in him. Now take in consideration this was all during out middle school phase where we were all trying to be “a cool kid”. He was the kid that could say one thing and turn everyone against you, at least everyone in the neighborhood. Even if it was just a rumor, trying to fight your side to prove it wasn’t true was a pain. So as the saying goes “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t consider the kid an enemy just a bad seed. Even when it came down to education, we would have completely different work ethics about it. Ever since middle school, Matt has always been on top of his school work. He rarely had to study because the material we were going over just came easily to him. Not with me. I had to take my time and review, review and then review some more before I could even think about acing a test. Although he was a smart kid… he always had a way to brag about how well he did in school, or how much better he was at this than me. While me on the other hand, when I did good on something I would maybe show him just to get a sense that “hmm I’m better than him”. I know it sounds a little self righteous of me, but that’s how I felt. Matt’s work ethics when it came to school would never compare to mine. We had a test in our English class once and of course he got a better grade than me and just boasted about it. While me, I kept quiet and was just proud that I got what I deserved. It’s almost like he was trying to prove to me that he could beat me or anyone at whatever he tried. In this case it was education. When we took our SATs, I got a better score than him. His excuse was “I went out the day before therefore I wasn’t at my fullest”. I didn’t understand why he couldn’t just have said, “good job man” or something along those lines. Although one thing that I have to admit is that him and I do have a very good habit of turning assignments in on time and doing pretty well on them. We both like to exceed ourselves on our work. That part of his work ethic is something I can compare to me in a good way. In a nutshell, my friend Matt is one of a kind. Him and I have our differences when it comes down to personality, friends and education… then again everyone has their differences. He has more of an “I own everything personality”, while mine is a caring and courteous one. We do share the same friends and treat them differently, he with a kingship attitude and I with a friendly one. While when it comes down to education we both share some same characteristics and attributes. We finish our work with a timely manner even if he just gets out of bed the day of and finishes while I take a week to do it. Now, Matt resides as my roommate. For now, I think it was a huge idea taking this mini adventure with him but only time will tell if I am right. After all, not everyone is perfect.