1. A sense of humor to keep you in check when things get rough. Sometimes, all it takes is a laugh — even in the bleakest times — to put things in perspective.

2. An acute knowledge of what your shortcomings are — the things you could do better, the things you’re self-conscious about — and how they are supposed to talk you down from whatever irrational spiral you’re in about them.

3. The courage to actually stand up to you and tell you when you’re being an idiot.

4. Enough respect for you to tell you so kindly.

5. Some weird, original skill — whether it’s being able to MacGyver their way out of any situation (ideal) or doing really good impressions to pass the time when you’re waiting and bored and have nothing better to do.

6. And acutely resourceful knowledge of one thing or another, like where all the Starbucks are in any given radius for prime bathroom use, what berries you can eat when lost in the woods, which actor was in that one thing before it eats away at you all day, or how you take your coffee so you never, ever go under-caffeinated, amen.

7. Enough tact to avoid a topic when you don’t want to talk about it, but enough awareness to know when you most need to talk about it.

8. The self-deprecation to look back and say, “Hey, remember that absolutely crazy thing we did once?!” and laugh.

9. The daring to just pick up and start in on whatever you’ve got planned, with zero knowledge other than the fact that you just gotta do this one thing together right here and now.

10. A sense of adventure to keep going even though you’re stepping totally out of your comfort zones.

11. The ability to sense when the both of you might need to get in a little downtime — not as a break from each other necessarily, but sometimes recouping alone does all the good in the world and brings you closer together.

12. Either the skill set to distract someone while you’re doing something you kinda sorta maybe shouldn’t be doing, or the ability to do that thing quickly while you do the distracting.

13. To be comfortable enough with you to tell you what’s bugging them right then and there, so you can air out your issues sooner rather than later.

14. The humility to admit when they were the one who screwed up, and enough love for you to give you the apology you deserve with absolutely zero strings attached.

15. The courage to tell you when they’re not okay with a choice you made, and the backbone to talk through what you could do differently together. It’s hardest to stand up to the people we love, respect, and care about, but you need to sometimes to keep one another in check for the good of everyone.

16. The same interests, but different strengths within them. You’re a team, after all, and two people can’t play the same position at the same time. (If you did, you’d be opponents.)

17. To know you well enough to tell when it’s time to go home and completely platonically snuggle and eat pizza and talk about feelings. (And to be comfortable enough with themselves and with you to do this regularly.)

18. To know when it’s time to force your ass out of bed and back into the world because you’ve been sulking long enough.

19. A radar for people you’d be interested in dating, and not in the “you’re both single and have brown hair, those are two things you have in common!” kind of way. Like, people you’d ACTUALLY be into.

20. An attraction to completely opposite “types.” Because so many friendships have been ruined by people chasing the same person, and even ex-best friends deserve better breakup stories than that.

21. The loyalty in that you guys are in this together, and that you won’t abandon each other just because things get a little rough. After all, it’s dumb to let somebody with a cute smile — or anything else at all — come between you.