July 2021 … The staff of William Cramp Fit Flyer recently interviewed Ms. Cheifetz, William Cramp’s school counselor, about friendship. Responses have been edited and shortened. 

Question: What’s most important in friendship? 

Answer: I would say honesty, trust, and loyalty. Honesty is sometimes really, really hard. It means telling people things they don’t want to hear sometimes. If you’re not able to do that with friends and they’re not able to do that with you, they’re not really good friends to you.  

Q: How did you keep a friendship through COVID when you couldn’t see each other? 

A: Zoom! We used FaceTime and text threads. We have a text thread with my friends from college. Now it’s a lifeline for us. Everything online was a huge saver for us. Now that it’s getting safer (my friends and I are all fully vaccinated), we are meeting outside.  

Q: How have you helped each other to be healthy? 

A: We are constantly talking about things that keep us healthy. We motivate each other. We were doing Zoom exercise videos, and we just encouraged each other. A lot of healthfulness is being able to express yourself and talk to your friends. 

Q: Why is it important to have friends you can rely on? 

A: Friends are the family you choose. It’s really important to have an outlet. You don’t need 500 good friends, you need just a few.  

Q: What advice would you give kids now for making friends during the time of COVID? 

A: Be patient. Be safe. Mostly I would say wait until we are back in person.  

Q: Have you ever had an argument with a friend and stopped talking for a bit?  

A: Yes. I definitely have with one friend. As far as when we were really mad at each other, it happened once. We talked a lot and cried a lot and laughed a lot and decided that our friendship was more important than the thing we were fighting about and we decided to put it in the past and move on.