THE VALUE OF FRIENDS

Outside View: The value of friends
　　By Cheryl Felicia Rhoads

　　I am losing friends left and right, well, actually, only left. Some friendships, however, have been strengthened during this election.

　　When I was 6, I learned a song: "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold." Even as a child, I was a born raconteur, so I always had lots of friends. But, by the time I got to fourth grade, I was already getting into political brawls. Early on, I began living my politically active mother's joke, "My name, it opens some doors and closes others."

　　I learned to tone it down a bit by the time I got to college. As a theater major, it was fun in an acting class one day, when we each had to pretend to be another student. I chose to mimic a beautiful petite girl with long dark hair. She was my polar opposite, this former cheerleader-turned-hippie-princess named Michelle. She got a kick out of my im