What I Know About Friends Now That I'm 60

In fifth grade, my BFF Diane dumped me for some girl named Helen. Diane and I had been inseparable for years and it took me what felt like forever to get over feeling betrayed. I agonized over what I had "done" to deserve such mistreatment, and spent months eating my lunch alone under "our" tree on the playground. I worried whether she would betray all my secrets and tell them to the icky Helen; even worse, I worried that she and Helen would have new secrets and she would forget ours. Being dumped by Diane remains the singularly most awful memory of my elementary school social life. Yes, I'm over it, but thank you for the therapy recommendations. The experience actually taught me a lot about both picking and keeping friends. And in the decades that followed the Great Diane Dump,

I've learned some other friendship lessons, including these:

1) Takers don't make great friends, but they do serve a purpose.

2) Over-givers don't make for great friends either.

3) The best friends are neither takers or over-givers; they are power sharers.

4) You can have more than one best friend.

5) Odd numbers are still awkward.

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