Blog Entry #4

What is important about friendship? Discuss what is so important about it in terms of the novel and your life.

Friendship is one of the things that make a life worth having. Just knowing that you have people you can trust and confide in is a comfort no matter where you are. It is the way we communicate and build bonds that defines us as humans. By letting others around us be involved in our lives we can develop a part of ourselves that would otherwise be untouched. I think that it is one of the greatest gifts we have been given. It is amazing how natural it can become and how much we can take for granted.

Choosing friends that help us get to where we want to be is also very important. We are going where their going. If we choose to be friends with people who slack off in school, it is likely we will too. I think it is important that we aim for what we want to become and through the help of friends who share similar goals as us we can succeed. I find that to be really important in my life because I know what I want my life to be like five or ten years from now. I want to be able to say that I didn't fail to reach my goals. I do not want to have any regrets and the path I take now will determine whether I will succeed.

Friendship is a really big aspect of October Sky. Through Sonny, O'Dell, Sherman, Billy, Quentin and Roy Lee's friendship they were able to support each other to such an extent that they were able to build unimaginable rockets. Each of one of them is different and I thought that that was really interesting. They may not have seen eye to eye on every decision but they stuck together and endured . They achieved so many things and I think that influenced so many people in Coalwood and all over the world. They were able to accept their individual faults and they learned life lessons from each other without even knowing it.

I can apply this to my own life because I do not often think about what consequences- good or bad- may come from the friends I choose. I also do not take as much time as I should to think about how lucky I am to have so many close friends! I need to remember not to take it for granted and to be the same kind of supporter in their lives as they are in mine. I have so many wonderful people all around me and I can learn a lot from them. They are great examples for me and I think that there is beauty in everyone and everything- we just need to find it.