On Friendship at St. John’s College

By Ehsan Nasiry

One of the main coefficients to surviving in our lives is friendships. Aristotle describes human beings as a “social creatures;” living and interacting with other human beings is a necessity for our lives. Although there are many inestimable things in life, friendship is one of the most substantial. We need to experience friendships in order to find the meaning of life, and friendships are thus very significant to our prosperity and general well-being.

Having friends in college doubles the excitements and joys of growing individually, and college is one of the best places to build a lifelong friendship. Like many other things, friendship in St. John’s is different. As unique as St. John’s is, it has established a global community in beautiful Santa Fe and Annapolis. Students from different part of the world come together to find ourselves immersed a community with incomparable opportunities to experience and learn more about life. As the method of learning in St. John’s is discussion, friends are always there to have conversation about their education.

The notion of global friendship has become very clear to me since arriving at St. John’s. It is fascinating to meet people from different countries with different culture and life system and connect with them through our common studies. Unfortunately, our world is facing a lot of negativity, and we too often see love, peace and acceptance replaced by hatred, violence and discrimination. Although we are surrounded with all these negatives, we at St. John’s learn to love and accept each other regardless of our gender or religion. We learn from true teachers and leaders to strengthen our connections with each other and build friendships and, eventually, to build a better world for everyone.