Ask any Philadelphia Phillies fan about Bryce Harper, and they'll rave about his immense impact on the field. Harper's dedication and passion for the game make him a fan favorite. Now, he's made another vital contribution—but this time, off the field. The 31-year-old stepped in as a wingman for a teenager, helping him score a prom date, reported PEOPLE.
Image Source: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies warms up before the game against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on May 27, 2024, in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
For high schooler Jake Portella, getting a date for prom was a top priority. That's when he decided to ask Harper for help. The Phillies star went above and beyond, accompanying Jake to his date's house and asking her to prom on his behalf.
Image Source: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies looks on against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citizens Bank Park on April 14, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
In an Instagram video uploaded by Portella (@jportella10), he and Harper stand in front of Guilia Leonetti's house. When Guilia steps out, she's stunned to see the Phillies star at her doorstep. Harper warmly greets her, "Hey, Giulia," as she stands awestruck. He then asks, "Jake wants to ask you to prom, so I thought I’d help him out and see if you wanted to go to prom with him. So, will you go to prom with him?"
Still excited by the sight of the baseball star, Guilia immediately says "Yes." She then receives a warm hug from Harper. Even her dad comes out to witness the heartwarming moment.
Talking about how he managed to get the Phillies star on board, Portella, a senior at Haddonfield Memorial High School, fondly recalled that he simply knocked on Harper's door and asked for help in nailing the promposal. He told The Phantastic Sports Show on FOX 29, "I knocked on his door, he seemed cool with it at first, then he was like ‘can I get your email so we can plan this out?’ and as I was leaving he was like ‘why don’t we do this right now'."
Guilia, Portella's prom date, was over the moon after being surprised by her hero. In an interview with 6abc Philadelphia, the New Jersey high schooler shared her excitement as a big Phillies fan and being starstruck by Harper. "Immediate tears as soon as I saw Bryce. I just love him," she said.
The Instagram video has been viewed over 126,000 times and has received over 1500 likes. Fellow users have commended Harper for his efforts in the comment section. @paps10 wrote, "The dad coming right in with no regard for the boyfriend!" @gym_junkie64 added, "That’s pretty darn awesome! Marry this kid!"
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Pictured: A healthy practice?
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.