“If you are lucky enough to have a childhoodfriend, try your hardest to grow old with them.These friends are a unique, irreplaceable breed.These friends lived through curfews andPolaroid pictures with you. These friends knowyour parents and siblings because they had to callyour house first to speak with you. Your memoriesare not frozen in time on social media, but live onnonetheless.Most importantly, they remember the personyou were before the world got ahold of you, sothey have this crazy ability to love you no matterwhat.They are the living, breathing reflection ofwhere you have been. And so, just when you thinkyou’ve lost yourself for good, they are there tobring you face-to-face with your true self, simplyby sharing a cup of coffee with them.As your world grows and becomes larger andmore complicated than your backyard, even if youestablish a life elsewhere, I hope your childhoodfriends remain lifelong allies, because mine havesaved my life on more than one occasion.”