Because friends are friends forever...

Or are they?

Here's the thing about friendships: very few of them are lasting.

And in saying this it is not my intention to imply that we will ever 100% lose people who truly mattered in our pasts. I mean, we have Facebook... In truth we will never lose anyone... even those we want to misplace. (Thanks for that, Zuckerberg.)

But with friends, it is the very rare friendship that starts in childhood and ends in old age with the same bubbly conversations, laugh till you cry story telling, and soul baring heart to hearts that our friendships often start out with.

Looking back on my life, I can label many "best friends" whom I have had. And, what's interesting to me is that I can honestly remember thinking that these people would be my "best friends forever". But what's even more interesting, is that I can't even remember when these friendships faded. Not that I do not still count these people as friends, and hold them dear to my heart, but our friendships do not still maintain that same intensity that they once had. And for relationships that were so important to me, for people who meant so much, shouldn't I at least remember the moment when we began falling out of one another's lives?

The truth is as easy as: people change. Everyone is guilty of it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's a part of the growing process and it needs to happen in order for us to grow up.

There is no one person to "blame" when a friendship melts. And I say melts, because that's really what it is like. The solid form of your friendship that was once there is gone, but the components are still there, puddling around.

In thinking this way about friendships, and who I once was, where I came from and where I am going, it has made me take stock of the friendships which I currently have, and what sets them up to be my "best friends forever".

The answer is simple: I found them when I was finding myself.

And knowing yourself makes all the difference.