My friends contributed a lot to my present identity, not only by influencing me to explore things but mostly by guiding me ever since we met many years ago. I met my most influential friends almost 10 years ago and I’ve grown a lot since then. Over the years, they have helped me realize my shortcomings and what I need to improve on as a person. I’m glad that they have never been fake to me and have always told me when I was in the wrong. That always made it easy for me to learn more about my identity as a person and change what I needed to about myself. I used to be an insulting know-it-all child who wasn’t the best at communicating with others and they helped me change that. I mean, I’m still interested in the same things and I still have the same type of personality but I no longer have the many negative aspects of it thanks to them. They didn’t change the true Simon, they just helped me show it.
And so in high school, I was more able to identify with my cliques and crowds. I was able to communicate better and I felt more connected to my barkada. My closest friends were mostly guys in highschool. We were the chill type of people in the honors class. I could identify with this type of clique since I felt happy with them and I didn’t want to stress myself out thinking of academics. My friends were the ones joking around in class. We loved playing basketball after class, gaming or going to a friend’s house after school if we had nothing to do. Our most memorable moments were playing pranks on others and making harsh jokes. That was my main clique in high school.
Now in college, I think I’ve found a clique with a similar personality. I mainly spend time with guys in my block and their sense of humor resonates with mine in the same way my high school barkada did. They don’t overthink about academics, some of them like basketball or League of Legends and are easy-going people. What I’ve noticed however is that my new friends here are much more mature than my friends in high school. It might just be since we were younger back then but I still notice how shallow and stupid my high school friends are until now (in a funny way). I also noticed that now I have more friends that are girls and my cliques aren’t purely boys anymore. Starting in senior high school, I’ve found it easier to bond with girls and my world no longer revolves around things that only men typically like.
Understanding the Self 