When you finally make it, who’s the first person you’d call? Treat them well now.

The person who comes to mind is a good indicator of who actually matters to you, and the answer usually arrives faster than any reasoned list would. It is easy to assume that relationship will simply be there at the end, held up by history. Closeness does not work like a savings account, and it needs deposits along the way.

Call them this week for no reason. Ask about whatever they are in the middle of. None of this needs to be a gesture, and the ordinary contact is the point, because that is what the connection is made of.