I was four years old. I was driving everyone around me crazy including myself. My mom heard about the Friendship Circle, and called Bassie. She came over to my 1st home introduced me to some very nice people who gave me unconditional friendship, and then helped me move into my 2nd home. Now mind you, this was in the beginning of this wonderful organization where this 2nd home was only a metaphor instead of a massive organization that houses the special needs of those wonderful kids who need it. However it was enough for me and was all that kept me happy, growing up. I spent so much of my time with the Friendship Circle, just being happy growing with the organization. Without the Friendship Circle I would not be standing here today.

I have always had issues with social skills. Not only did the Friendship Circle provide me with older kids who did not care about these issues, they also taught me how to overcome them. Everything was fun with the Friendship Circle, even when I was so down I did not think I could possibly have fun. These volunteers made me feel special. Although I had many issues, and would sometimes blow up on them when they made me angry, they were still unconditionally accepting of me and always provided the love, fun, and most of all friendship.

When I was 12, I needed to do community service in preparation for my Bar Mitzvah. I actually became one of the first Volunteers in Training. It took me a long time to learn the difference between having a volunteer and being a volunteer. However this transition is just as important, as uplifting, and equally as much fun as having a volunteer. When I was in the eighth grade and had been volunteering for two years, I met mini-me. It was at a winter camp, and the former head of boy volunteers Aryeh Greenberg, asked me to hang out with Max Granitz who just like me has Asperger Syndrome. We having a lot in common, did not immediately get along. But it’s okay because now we could hardly be any more close. Max and I know we’re there for each other, and he knows that I will always care about him, be keeping an eye on him as he grows. He will always know in the words of, but with a different connotation than of George Orwell that “Big Brother Is Indeed Watching Him.”

I owe a lot to the Friendship Circle. It is a funny story a couple years ago Max was having a minor meltdown, similar in the fashion of my younger self, and he was really angry with himself. He asked me “Why do you waste your time on me?” I responded, “First of all you’re not a waste of time, actually there are very few ways I could spend my time more usefully, and second of all I am in debt to the Friendship Circle.”

He then inquired, “Why don’t you just pay them off then.” I replied; “Because I won’t be done paying off the Friendship Circle until I’ve given them a lifetime’s devotion.”

The Friendship Circle taught me many things at many different times. When I needed friends it taught me to have friends. When I got older and had friends, it taught to be a friend. When I needed someone to care about me, it taught me how to have many care about me. When I knew what it was like to be loved by someone else than family it taught to care about others.

The Friendship has provided me with so many memories, and has allowed me to grow up and never move on. I will always be involved with the friendship circle. As an aspiring author, I hate being cliché but home is where the heart is, and I’m never leaving home.