Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? The ability to maintain friendships with a small number of people over a long period of time is more important for happiness than the ability to make many new friends easily. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

In order to live a fulfilling life, we need to meet our bare essentials, among which healthy relationships are of paramount importance. Indeed, the quality of people’s relationships determines the quality of people’s life. Almost every mentally healthy individual needs a few friends and a partner. People share their life - that is, the experiences they go through, delightful moments, and sorrows - with their significant other and friends. Meanwhile, in this world of chaos, people may lose people. It is little doubt that this is one of the most heartbreaking moments in human life. To avoid this, some people make new friends as a routine, while others try to keep and last their friendships. A far as friendships are concerned, maintaining friends in life is likely to be an essential skill. It takes time to build up a genuine and intimate friendship. Intimacy means being open and vulnerable, and sharing one’s thoughts with one another. People need to spend a certain amount of time together so that they can let their surrounding guards down. In addition, through life’s ups and downs, people can know one another. If they have shared their worst and utmost, they would be able to see through each other, to build a close bond, and to become intimate friends who understand what their friends are going through, support them whenever their friends need them, and comfort and console them in difficult situations. It is not surprising that this type of friendship would be long-lasting and satisfying. On the other hand, making friends who cannot understand your core values, moral principles, and thoughts would result in a lack of intimacy and mediocre relationships. Long-lasting friendships can be an element of mental health. To fill the void, sometimes, people make new friends readily. By doing so, they may replace their rage, disappointment, and pain with a new friend who may bring the delight back into their lives, although temporary. These people are ignoring the fact that people are not there to fill each other’s void, but to accompany people, to embrace each other’s flaws, and to accept who the other truly is. On the other hand, the ability to keep the company of trustworthy friends can make people secure, bringing about a sense of belonging and happiness, thereby enabling them to enjoy decent mental health. In conclusion, the ability to keep friendships definitely outweighs the ability to make new friends easily. To live a satisfying life, everyone needs companions who are honest, reliable, and understanding. Let’s not take our friends for granted especially those who frequently say “I’ll be there for you”.