What Are Friends For Life?

Here is the thing about old friends. We can’t exactly describe how they objectively look like anymore. Would I find them the ladies attractive if I’d seen them on the streets? I don’t know. It is difficult.

It is like trying to see letters as abstract shapes again once you’ve learned to read.

The memories we’ve created and have for each other are superimposed over one another. It is a blur coming together to form the complex and beloved friend in our mind.

We’ve known each other too long and too well to simply see each other in our mere appearance anymore.

Sometimes we see ourselves at a delay. It is tough to see and accept ourselves for who we are in the mirror today. Our 22-, 16- and 11-year-old selves keep getting in the way. Now, we have a slightly clearer understanding of what it means to be older. It isn’t just about the physical change.

It is also about mentally acknowledging that our perception of ourselves might be outdated.

Yet, there is something comforting when our old friends remind us, as reductive and insulting as it seems, that we’re still who we are. It is like lounging around the house wearing our rattiest old green army tee all day. Their familiarity houses an external pressure that helps us retain our shape. Old friends often start the sentence with, “I know you. You’re not the kind of man who…”