The Minor League: Building FriendshipsThe Minor League: Building Friendships
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Savannah, Kayla and Blu talk through six key traits of a genuine friend, sharing school stories, recovery links and honest reflections on loyalty, positivity and honesty. Their chat highlights how small choices in friendship can support healthier relationships and personal growth.
31:10•6 Sept 2020
Building Real Friendships: Six Traits Teens Say Matter Most
Episode Overview
- Strong friendships start with taking a genuine interest in others and noticing when someone is having a hard day.
- Healthy relationships require being a giver, not just a taker, and recognising when you are putting in all the effort.
- Loyalty includes limits; supporting someone in addiction or struggle does not mean taking the fall or constantly rescuing them.
- Choosing a positive focus, even when you don’t feel it yet, can gradually shift how you experience difficult situations.
- Being open, honest and real depends on knowing yourself, setting boundaries, and choosing respectful truth over comfortable lies.
“You don’t have to like them to respect them.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety and healthy relationships? This conversation on the Minor League edition of Addict II Athlete zooms in on something every age group wrestles with: what actually makes a good friend. Hosted by Savannah Robinson with her dad, therapist and addiction counsellor Blu Robinson, and in-studio guest Kayla Marshall, the episode breaks friendship down into six simple but challenging traits.
You’ll hear how their own story started with one rough day in weight training class and a small act of kindness. As Savannah puts it, being a real friend begins with someone who “takes a genuine interest in others,” while Kayla recalls, “I felt so much better when you came up to me and actually cared about what was happening.” From there, they move into the difference between being a giver and being drained by one‑way friendships.
Blu connects this to recovery, warning about staying stuck in a “victim paradigm” and explaining how constant rescuing can keep people from growing. The trio talk honestly about loyalty, why it must include limits, and how being “a producer not a consumer” of effort protects both friendships and sobriety.
Positivity gets a realistic treatment too; it’s not all smiles, more the “fake it until you become it” mindset that slowly reshapes how you see tough situations, like walking into a class where you don’t know a soul. They also tackle appreciating differences, stereotyping, changing values in friend groups, and how respect doesn’t require liking everyone.
The episode wraps with a strong focus on being open, honest and real – including the teenage pressure to people‑please, the temptation to lie to avoid hurting someone, and the struggle to be authentic when you’re still figuring out who you are. Anyone curious about building healthier connections, especially alongside recovery, will find plenty to think about – and maybe a nudge to ask, what kind of friend are you actually being?
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