I love keeping in touch with everyone. Seriously. Everyone. Sometimes it’s really hard to maintain all of these friendships but it’s important to me. I still chat with friends from kindergarten just as often as people I’ve met since moving to Florida.

And I am proud to say that I have a certain knack for keeping up these relationships. Even if I haven’t spoken to someone in months, or even years, I can meet up with them for lunch or call them to catch up and pick up right where we left off. In fact, during a recent lunch with my college roommate Beth, we chatted about how easy things always are between us, even if months and months pass with no communication. I rarely end friendships because of a nasty fallout; sometimes people get busy and their lives go in different directions, but that’s fine. Actually, it’s great. How boring would it be to have friends who were all just clones of myself? I embrace diversity.

Plus, I don’t care much for drama. Sure, I love gossip and being in-the-know but real deal drama is not for me. I couldn’t care less if a friend cancels dinner hours before our reservation or forgets to return a phone call for a week. A hot new guy asked you on a date at the exact same time we were supposed to meet up drinks? Hell yeah I want you to ditch me! And it’s genuine – I’m not secretly harboring some animosity. Life happens, and I’m sure I’ve been on the giving end of those cancellations and rescheduling situations many times.

So I was thrilled to go out for lunch with my friend Jackie from grade school on Friday afternoon. Jackie and I were joined at the hip for years while going to Good Counsel Academy in White Plains ages ago, until she moved to Arizona and later, Florida. We spent hours ironing our hair in my bedroom and trekking around the park in Sleepy Hollow, hear where she lived. I have vivid memories of ice skating at Ebersoles on Friday nights, flirting with boys and eating French Fries until my dad picked us up down the block so no one would see. We kept in touch loosely for a few years but then lost touch – until Facebook. As I was getting ready to move from NYC to Delray Beach, I was thrilled to find out that my partner-in-crime from 4th grade was living in West Palm Beach.

But since life is crazy and people get busy – she has two kids, I travel frequently between NYC and Florida and we both work a lot – we only got together once since I moved here. I keep up with her life through status updates but it’s clearly not the same. So this past Friday, we made plans and met at House of Siam for a much-needed catch up. After 90 minutes chatting over pad thai and sizzling beef, we walked to Starbucks and talked non-stop for another hour over chai tea lattes.

It was amazing how easy it was. More than a decade has passed since we first became BFF 4eva & eva (yes, I really did write that in a note I passed her in class, which I recently found in a box of things in my dad’s attic) but it’s like nothing changed.

Seeing Jackie made me realize that it really is easy and important to keep in touch with people who have had meaning in your life. Sure, you may only speak once or twice a year but if they were important enough to be good friends in the first place, they are important enough to make some time for no matter how busy life gets. Friends are like family to me and I’m thankful for each and every person in my life.

Me & Jackie, a million years ago: