Friends you’ve had since you were seven are rare. Don’t let them drift just because you’re busy.

Old friendships carry something new ones cannot manufacture, which is a shared record of who you were before you decided who to be. That kind of history takes decades to build and cannot be restarted from scratch. Drift rarely comes from a falling out, it comes from two people being reasonably busy at the same time for a long stretch.

Message one of them today with no occasion attached. Not a plan to catch up, just a sign of life. Friendships like that survive on small proof that you still think of each other.