[custom_adv] Old friends might ask you about your job or boyfriend, but they’re also the ones you’ll riff with, the ones who within an hour you’ll be uncontrollably laughing with, the ones you feel relaxed and calm with, the ones that remind us of who we are – even parts that we might have forgotten because they were there at that family party, they remember the heartbreak you felt when you broke up with your first love and how it changed you. [custom_adv] They have a better understanding of who you are now because they understand and know you were and where you’re from. Not everyone has these friends and that’s what makes them as precious as the last page in your favourite book. [custom_adv] We live in a world where it’s never been easier to communicate, and yet maintaining old friendships still feels difficult. We’re busy people and, for a lot of us, the idea of sustaining a relationship beyond a decade with someone whom they’re not related to feels nigh on impossible. But that’s where the lines blur slightly – true old friends are the closest it gets to family. [custom_adv] Old friends know everything about you – they are aware of your flaws, that you can be a bit self-involved or that you tend to be a bit gobby when drunk or that you will resist confrontation no matter what, and they love you anyway. [custom_adv] They accept you for who you are. Over the course of our teenage years and twenties, we change a lot, our values, our interests, our jobs. Your old friends know all this and they’ve decided to stick with you. [custom_adv] They have a deep understanding of how to make you feel good or sad because they’ve had years of watching your reactions to certain situations. They know that you have a tendency to bury your head in the sand in times of conflict; that a certain type of man is your kryptonite or the spirit you can’t handle despite your most ardent protests.