MUET 800/4 Writing

" The most valuable thing in life is friendship". Do you agree?

Friendship is one of the most basic component in life. In life, friendship is the most valuable thing. One may agree to this statement while others may not. In this piece of essay, I will discuss the importance of friendship and the drawback of friendship.

What are friends for, you may ask. Besides family members, I am bold to say friends are the second closest people around us. And this brings to my first point that is friends are able to provide  a comfort zone around us. At hard times or at the brink of bursting out, they are the one who stand by us, comfort us and lend a helping hand to us. We feel more comfortable sharing our problem with them as they are great listeners too. They treasure us as much as how we treasure them as trustworthy friends. We share and care for each other. We laugh, cry and joke together. And that is why friendship balances us spiritually, emotionally and physically.

Let us turn to another perspective point of view - the drawback.  The famous psychologist, Abraham Maslow once deduced friendship will cultivate peer pressure.We tend to assimilate ourselves with our friends because friends play a greater role in part and parcel of life. However, friendship will bring a set of drawbacks when you mingle with the wrong friend. It decays our moral value causing us to be dehumanizing and inhospitable to others. A child who mingles with the wrong people, say, a drug dealer. This, of course, will definitely cause the growth and development of the child to be slanted away. And hence, this is the time when parents come to the situation to educate children on choosing friends wisely. 

Now let us all look into this matter in a very rational way. Is friendship the most valuable thing in life? Oxygen is valuable. Food and shelter are valuable. Family bonding is valuable too. One may say nothing is valuable and neither do they outweigh each other. I have faith in saying that everything is equally valuable whether in terms of human relationship or materials around us.

In retrospect, friendship does bring us the attention with its importance value but also carries the capacity with its set of drawbacks. It really depends on how we view the key word 'valuable'. It also depends on how we relate friendship in our life.  And with this, I rest my case.

An unsatisfied essay. But considering the time factor which is less than 30 minutes for this (coz' I spent too much time for the stoopid table chart), I think I can pat my head for this piece of simple essay I guess. =(

[EDIT]
Oh yeah, I got a Band 5 for my very first MUET exam. Quite satisfying.=)

Writing 70/90
Reading 96/120
Listening 41/45
Speaking 40/45
Total: 247/300