People throw around the term “best friend” a lot, especially when you’re young…in middle school, junior high, high school. Somehow when you become an adult, you stop using best friend very often or only use it to describe someone you used to know. “Oh, she was my best friend in ninth grade.”

But, then you have the real deal, a reason to use the term “best friend,” no matter how old you are. I use “best friend” for a friendship that I know will only come along once in my lifetime. Lisa and I met when we were 9 years old and we’re still as close now as the day we met 16 years ago. Actually, that’s not true…we’re closer in a lot of ways. (Holy crap, 16 years!)

We had always talked when we were young about how when we were “old and married” that we’d have to have houses right next to each other because we couldn’t bear the thought of ever being apart. As fate would have it, she now lives in Dubai—about as far away a location as I could have ever imagined, then or now.

But, for a few too brief hours yesterday, we got to talk and laugh and it felt like no time had passed since we had done the same thing last year. Sometimes, when I get lonely or sad, or wish that I could just pick up the phone and say, “Hey, let’s meet for lunch,” I cheer up remembering that I should be grateful just to be half of such an amazing friendship—one that I know is extremely rare.

There’s a lot of things that I hope Isobel will be able to experience in her life, but something closest to the top of the list is for her to have a friendship that will endure over decades too.

“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” - Elisabeth Foley