TOEFL iBT TWE Essay:
“Moving Away from Old Friends”

Essay Topic>托福真題

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? "It is often not a good idea to move to a new city or a new country because of the loss of old friends." Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Example Writing>托福范文

There are times when the decision to move away can affect some of your old relationships. For whatever reason, the idea may bring about a mixture of such feelings as betraying someone you have known for years by making new friends in a new city or a new country. Once away, however, you are supposed to keep in touch with old friends through phone calls or the Internet, although nothing can beat seeing each other face-to-face as often as before.

The most important thing to do when moving away is to try not to be a stranger, but to remember. There might be a couple of good reasons that make you leave for a new place, but it would certainly not be a good idea to lose contact with old friends. This is because the lack of communication with old friends could mean an emotional loss, probably never to be recovered again. Therefore, the least you should do is to stay connected electronically, although this being a bit impersonal. Perhaps, you may have said that you would maintain communication with certain friends and actually meant to do so, but things are sometimes not that simple. After all, it makes nostalgic sense to always remember that old friends are like your favorite stars: you do not always see them, but you know they are there.

Inter-personal meeting as usual being not the case, relationships between friends are likely to change anyway .Usually, after months or years since your departure, long-time friends at a distance could be lost to various degrees by calling often or calling seldom or not at all. As can be imagined, after getting into everyday routine in a new city or a new country, you may not be able to find the time to contact old friends. It may so happen that your old friends are just as busy as you are and feel the same way. Even though everybody agrees that old friends are best, it is no good giving up the idea of moving away in order to keep up an old friendship the way it used to be. Undeniably, it is painful to face the possibility that the pleasure of having fun of it together might be no more

Moving away from old friends is truly a sentimental loss, but you must make the life's decision on your own for your own best benefits. It is therefore healthy to be romantic-- believing that old friends are forever, no matter how far away and how long since. The question is: can miles and years truly separate old friends? (Jeenn Lee Hsieh)