Friendship

Honestly, I think friendship is one of the things that keeps us sane, because we're social creatures at heart and we're just not wired to go through life completely on our own. A good friend gives you a sounding board when you're wrestling with something, and they'll also pull you up when you're being ridiculous, which family sometimes won't. I remember going through a rough patch after I moved cities for work, and it was really my closest friend calling me every week that stopped me from spiralling. So beyond just company, I'd say friendships give us a sense of belonging that money and success honestly can't buy.

I'd say it's a bit of a double-edged sword, to be honest. On the surface it's never been easier to connect, since you can meet someone across the world through a gaming community or a shared interest online in a matter of minutes. But I'd argue that making genuine, deep friends is actually harder than it used to be, because so many of these connections stay shallow and never really move offline. Take my parents' generation for instance, they made lifelong friends just from living on the same street and running into each other every single day, and that kind of organic, face-to-face bond is something we've partly lost. So we make more acquaintances, but arguably fewer real friends.

Absolutely, and I actually think that's completely natural rather than something to be sad about. People grow up, they move away, they start families or throw themselves into demanding careers, and inevitably some friendships drift as your priorities pull in different directions. A friend I was absolutely inseparable with at university, for example, now lives abroad, and while we're nowhere near as close day-to-day, the bond is still there whenever we do catch up. That said, the really special friendships are the ones that manage to weather all those changes and adapt, and those are the ones worth holding onto.

For me, the single most important quality is dependability, that sense that someone will genuinely show up for you when the chips are down, not just when it's convenient. On top of that I'd say a good friend needs to be a good listener and non-judgmental, because you want to be able to open up without feeling like you're being quietly evaluated. I've got one friend in particular who I can call at two in the morning if something goes wrong, and I know without a doubt she'll pick up, and that's worth more to me than a hundred fair-weather friends. Loyalty and a decent sense of humour are the icing on the cake, but that reliability is really the foundation.

I'd say honesty is absolutely the bedrock of any real friendship, because once trust goes, there's really not much holding the whole thing together. A true friend is someone who'll tell you what you need to hear rather than just what you want to hear, even when it stings a little. I remember a friend gently telling me I was making a huge mistake staying in a job that was clearly burning me out, and while it wasn't what I wanted to hear at the time, that bit of tough love turned out to be exactly what I needed. That said, I do think honesty has to be tempered with tact, because there's a world of difference between being truthful and just being brutally blunt for the sake of it.