How to maintain friendships

Striking up a friendship is often easier than maintaining one. The longest and strongest friendships require the most care. But most people, in reality, tend to take the friendships for granted. So, friendships are often damaged by people’s carelessness of when they doing and or saying damaging things. It is always a pity whenever I see that a better good friendship going their separate ways. To maintain friendships, the first most important thing for us is to keeping in close touch (or close contact) with our friends. If we do not, is the friendship is very likely to fade away. Besides, we should spare no effort to offer our help when our friends need it. Being friends does not mean we have to agree with each other all the time, but rather encourage and help each other grow. In my opinion, real friends need should to agree to differ.  So what why do you think why we need friends?

Very nice Michael! Well written and you definitely have a good idea of what friends are supposed to be. I would love you to answer your own question at the end :) 

How to maintain friendships

Striking up a friendship is often easier than maintaining one. The longest and strongest friendships require the most care. But most people in reality tend to take the friendships for granted. So, friendships are often damaged by people’s carelessness of doing and saying  actions and words. It is always a pity whenever I see that a better friendship good friends going their separate ways. To maintain friendships, the first thing for us is keeping in close touch with our friends. If not, is very likely to fade away. Besides, we should spare no effort to offer our help when our friends need it. Being friends does not mean to agree each other all the time, but to encourage and help each other grow. In my opinion, real friends need to agree to differ.  So what do you think, why do we need friends? (<-- this ending doesn't feel related to the title topic. My suggestion: how should we maintain friendships?)