I have had the same group of friends for over a decade (excluding a few). Specifically, my best friend and I have known each other since third grade! We first met in class then soccer made us become even closer. Our relationship has grown and 16 years later, we are 24 years old and still make the time to see one another. Through college and taking our own path we have chosen in life, we may have had not communicated as much as we should have. And yet we still make the time to see one another no matter the occasion.

My entire life I have had friends that I have gained and lost. The ones we have lost can be for many reasons, good or bad. But the biggest reason I have lost some of my friends is either communications or simply a falling out. Growing up in the age of MySpace and Facebook, there has always been a push to have the most amount of friends on your account. Of course, I was caught up in the hype when I was much younger but now I have realized a valuable lesson — out of all these people on my friends list, who do I actually talk to? Or better yet, who is really my friend?

I’m a very outgoing person and making friends can be easy, but after 24 years of my life, I’ve sought out who is truly my friend. It’s not someone who puts you into harms way, or use and abuses you. A friend is someone you can have an equal relationship to. When you need a shoulder or someone to be by your side and you know that that person will do the same for you. That is a true friend. It’s not someone who doesn’t allow you to share and hog the relationship. This is an equal status, not one sided or else it becomes a focused state upon that sole person and they become dominant.

Distance can happen between friends, even the closest of friends. But as long as the communication between one another is similar to where you last left off then the friendship can stay true. My best friend and I have known each other for 16 years and although we both have grown and have responsibilities, we are still the same great friends that we are today.