“Don’t mind my pants!” I announced to my girlfriends as I entered the room, “I packed them without realizing my nanny shrunk them in the wash.”
“We stopped feeling sorry for you the moment you said ‘nanny,’” one of them retorted. Touchée. We all laughed. I had moved away from our hometown in pursuit of a different career, but I managed to see my “Girls” about once a year. I was the only one with a full-time nanny, so it was an easy target for a joke.
There is something unique about old friends; they know you in a way that other people don’t. They can get away with teasing you about virtually anything, because you never doubt their love – after all, you’ve been through worse and the friendship hasn’t wavered. Old friends may no longer have a life that looks like yours, or maybe they do, but it doesn’t matter in the same way it does for new friends, because your friendship isn’t based on common interests; it’s based on common experiences and a life full of memories.
These are the friends who climbed trees and rode bikes with you. They knew you before you had boobs, and spent years talking about the ones you got. They’re the friends whose parents’ phone number you still know by heart, because you didn’t have a cell phone back then. They kept you on the straight and narrow with their friendship on sports teams, in Sunday school, or in musical performances, but they’re also the friends that still tease you about the grade 12 sleepover when you asked if that “job” actually involved blowing. No doubt, they were there when you had your first drink.
Old friends are the ones who knew your first crush, and witnessed your first relationship. They were at your prom and your wedding. They showed up at your parents’ house with Deep and Delicious cake when you had your first heartbreak. They appreciate the husband you married because they met the guy before him that they prayed you wouldn’t marry.
As I get older, my appreciation for old friends only deepens. Old friends are happy for you when you move away, and happier still when you move back. They enjoy the social media updates on your growing children, paired with an annual in-person update. And as time goes on, they are not only the friends who show up at your grandparents’ and parents’ funerals, but the ones who actually remember them and share in your sorrow.
So, cheers to old friends – because even if you make new ones, those old, established friendships will always be special.
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