The friend who’s known you since fourth grade is worth the twenty bad haircuts you survived together.

Long friendship holds a value that cannot be assembled quickly. Somebody who watched you be awkward and wrong and nine years old carries a picture of you that no new person can acquire, and the shared history includes every embarrassing stage rather than the edited version. That accumulation is the whole asset.

Get in touch this week with somebody who has known you a long time, even with nothing in particular happening. Mention something specific you remember. Guard those friendships the way you would guard anything that took a decade to build.