Have been thinking about this question quite often recently.

Here's the part where everyone goes, "Of course. You can turn to your close friends, share with them your innermost feelings. Close friends are always there to lend you a shoulder to cry on or a listening ear. Close friends are always there for you." Blah blah blah, the person goes on to describe the close friends as angels and the acquaintances as some people who are heartless that they don't offer a helping hand when you're in trouble.

But that ain't all true. Think about it. If you get too close with someone, you wouldn't really want to share with that person when you're sad or stuff because you know that you're going to make that person worry about you and you don't want your friend to feel depressed with you. So you rather keep it all to yourself. And acquaintances might not be Hi-Bye friends, they can be friends that you don't really hang out or confide in too. I'm sure people have the minimum taste of making friends with friendly people who extend helping hands when their friends are in trouble.

These few days I have witnessed that having a bunch of acquaintances isn't that bad after all. Firstly, if you have many acquaintances, you have many people to talk to. So even if one group of close friends deserts you, you can still find someone else to walk with, talk to, go home with. Heck, you might even get a new best friend along the way! Staying with one group of close friends also constricts your social circle. You'll hang around with them until you're oblivious to what's happening around you, pretty soon you'll start taking things for granted because you're so cooped up in that small world of yours. Interacting with acquaintances gives you a chance to widen your social circle and find out other things you never thought you would, gives you an opportunity to improve your communication skills that are deteriorating constantly as you get more and more reliant on computer games, PSP, and even Ipods.

Plus, acquaintances can never hurt you. Most of the time you people will be having lovely short pleasant conversations. And if they do hurt you, you can always tell yourself, "It's okay, they don't know me well enough. So they don't know I would get hurt." Unlike when you're being with your close friends, you get hurt even more when they do something hurting because of the fact that you expected them to know that you're hurt, that you don't like them doing that to you, and the disappointment adds on to the antagonizing misery of the hurt.

The first time I laughed at this quote saying it isn't true, I got proven wrong.

This year, I laughed at it the second time, saying it isn't true too,

guess now I'm going to be proven wrong again.

I don't know what your reaction will be after reading what I have to say.

Heck, I don't even know if you'll read it. But after saying so much,

I don't mean that having a bunch of acquaintances is better than having close true friends.

You can sustain if you hang out with different acquaintances every time,

but you need true friends to enrich your life, to put colours into your monochromatic routine.

I'm sorry if I spoilt anyone's mood.

What else can I say? I'm hurt, badly.