In a cold living room, Tom is sitting in his chair. His eyes don’t shine anymore. He looks extremely old and weak. Today is his birthday, and he is by himself. The only thing that he has been doing all day is thinking about how sad and lonely his life is. As he was looking at some old pictures, he found one special with him and his friends from college. This picture brought back the days when he had friends and his life was full of happiness. Also, it brought him a sad memory. This memory happened forty years ago, during his last year of college.

Throughout college, Tom had a friend named Mark. Mark was tall and skinny. He was shy, smart and responsible. Also, Mark didn’t have as many friends as Tom had. He considered Tom as his best friend. As good friends, Tom and Mark went boating together, they knew everything about each other. Also, they overcame many problems together. They were really good friends.

On his twenty-fourth birthday their life changed. On the night before his birthday, Mark called Tom, “Hi! Tom” his voice sounded strange. He continued, “I have an important project to work on. I’m having some problems with this. Maybe, you could come over and help me with it giving me some new ideas. Could you?” Tom asked, “What time?” Mark kept in silence for a minute, then he said. “At 8 pm, is it good for you?” Then Tom answered, “Ok! See you later”. At that night, it was Tom’s birthday. So, he didn’t want to spend his birthday helping Mark with his project. Tom went to a club with some other guys.

The next morning, Tom noticed that Mark was acting differently. When he went to talk to Mark, Mark ignored him completely. As Mark was about to leave the classroom, Tom said in an angry voice, “You are selfish. You are just thinking about yourself. I was having fun on my birthday. Why can’t you understand it?”

I had moved to Arizona about two weeks before the start of my junior year school, so not only was this a new school for me, but also a new state and I did not know anyone.

On the first day of school at lunch after getting my meal, I sat down at an empty table in the courtyard. As I began to eat I looked around at the other tables and saw a girl sitting alone, so I decided why not go sit with her. Anyway there was no reason for me to have a whole table to myself, and who knew maybe I could make a friend. I walked to the girl quickly to check whether my guess was right. When I stood before her, I said, "Excuse me, do you mind if I sit with you? " She was surprised at first, but then smiled and said "Sure!".

We chatted happily while eating. I told her I was a newcomer and I had no friend. I expressed my intention to make friends with her. She said because of her body size, no one wanted to get close to her, so she was glad to have a friend. We became close friends throughout the next two years. Towards the end of our senior year she told me that she'd been accepted to an out of state college and would be moving away after graduation. I was sad that I would miss her but at the same time was really happy for her.

She then shared with me something very moving. "Do you remember the first day of school when you came over and sat down with me during lunch? " she asked. "Of course! why do you ask? " I replied. She continued, "I want to let you know how special you are and that you make a difference." I wanted to know the reason for that.

Her tears rolled down from her eyes.

Hearing what she said, I was lost in thought.

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How far would you go to help a friend? Jeremy Savage, aged 17, and Ian Marshall, aged16, both from Canada, had their friendship tested to the limit on a recent trip to the Rocky Mountains with their parents.

On Saturday morning, the two boys decided to climb Cathedral Mountain by themselves while their parents relaxed at the campsite. After three hours, they reached the top and enjoyed the beautiful view from the mountaintop.

However, trouble began when they started the climb down. On one very dangerous part of the mountain, Ian fell three metres off the side of the path. Jeremy climbed down to where Ian was and found him badly injured and not able to move. Jeremy had to decide what to do. He needed help but he did not want to leave his friend. He cleaned the dirt and blood from Ian’s face and hands, and then tried to help Ian stand up, but Ian’s right leg was hurting too much. They had to wait and hope that help would come.

Meanwhile, as darkness started to fall, their parents back at the campsite became very worried that the boys had not returned. They got in touch with park workers and began searching for the boys. Soon more than 20 people were looking for them on Cathedral Mountain.

While they waited for help, Jeremy gave Ian his food and water and let him lie on his jacket.

At sunrise, Jeremy decided that the only way to help his friend was to carry him down the mountain.