Jan 14, 2026 | By Aerin McLaughlin ES ’26

“You are who you surround yourself with” is a common phrase that is often regarded as an important piece of advice for navigating friendships. Although we hear it often, and maybe even repeat it ourselves, we seldom understand what to take from it. In the days before we lose our innocence, questions regarding our friend’s integrity are not quite as important as questions regarding their favorite color or movie. But as we age, our perception of the world quickly changes, and so do our questions. It is natural to wonder just how much of an influence friends can or should have on us. It is also natural to question just how much we can or should, in return, influence them. Oftentimes, these questions run through our minds anytime we attempt to separate ourselves from those we spend time with.

Jan 14, 2026 | By Aalia Holt SY ’27

Birds of a feather flock together, so goes the old adage. But, is it really true? Is it true that the more similar two people are, the easier friendship forms. In the best of friends, something far more important than similarities are at work; there we find forgiveness and shared commitment. The story of a young girl reveals close friendships forming around feathers of various shades and shapes.

Jan 14, 2026 | By Raleigh Adams YDS ’26

A sunny afternoon. The three sit in a piazza near a fountain. Pantalone sighs dramatically over a letter in his hands.

PANTALONE:

(Heaving a sigh so theatrical pigeons scatter, clutching the letter to his chest as if it were a will)

Ohhh—misery! Tragedy! Catastrophe disguised as correspondence! My dear friend Giacomo has abandoned Venice for Milan. Milan! A city of fog, fashion, and forgetfulness!

(Looking to the Heavens)

O saints, why must my friends migrate like storks, leaving me a lonely scarecrow in life’s field?

Jan 14, 2026 | By Gavin Susantio YDS ’25

What do humans, elves, and God have in common? They’ve been storied throughout the ages as impossible friends. But the history of the strangest friendships, no matter how unlikely, may be the most human stories ever told. When the divine befriends the mortal, or the machine the human, a sacred bridge forms between the finite and the infinite. Across great fiction, the relationships between humans and robots, elves and dwarves, and gods and creatures share a striking feature: in each pair, one kind of being is immortal.

Jan 14, 2026 | By Sydney Scheller BR ’26

Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, defines friendship broadly as “with respect to each other there is a mutual and recognised love, and those who love each other wish well to each other in that respect in which they love one another.” He outlines: 1) friendships of utility, 2) friendships of pleasure, and 3) friendships of virtue. In a friendship of utility, each party “loves for the sake of what is good for themselves.” When friends search after what is pleasurable for themselves, it is a friendship of pleasure. However, in a friendship of virtue, friends love each other for the very being that the other is. In their friend, they see shining back both the objective good and the good they see in themselves.