Why No One Really Compares To The People You Grew Up With

You can’t always stay as close as you were. There will eventually come a time when everyday texting becomes the weekly “how are you?” and a catch-up call every once in a while. But it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to share every detail of your lives like you once did. The strength of a friendship is not defined by how many texts are sent or meaningless daily details are shared or how often you physically spend time with one another.

You grow up and go your separate ways, and you meet new friends and become close with them too. They are your roommates, classmates, coworkers and neighbors. They’re great. They’re close. They don’t know you like the people you grew up with. They don’t know you like the people you tried your first beer with and spent your Saturday nights in high school with. They don’t know your embarassing, dramatic first heartbreaks, your family’s issues, the things you’ve struggled with since childhood. The people who know these things are so much more than old friends from a hometown. They were, and somehow still are, family.

You don’t have to pretend around these people. You watched each other grow up. They know the bullshit you’ve dealt with that shaped you and that makes you who you are today. They have a deep understanding of all things imperfect. Things you wouldn’t want other people to know, but it’s okay that they do — they love you anyway. You are emotionally naked around them – there’s no hiding anything. You are your best and realest self and most honest self.

They don’t know the details of your recent one night stand and aren’t familiar with the bars you frequent on the weekends. They aren’t in on all the jokes from Spring Break and don’t know what fads you’re into at this second. Because, frankly, these are petty details that will change with time. What’s so great about life-long friends, though, is that they won’t.   

It doesn’t matter how often you keep in touch, and it doesn’t matter when you’ll next reunite. There’s never that awkward small talk in the beginning, you’re just hugging and teasing as though you never left. Things always pick up where they left off, no matter how many years back you left them. They are the feeling of home, and there’s nothing, and no one, that can ever compare.