be there for you’

BY VIRGINIA BUCKINGHAM

The popular sitcom “Friends” with the catchy theme song and lovable characters lasted so long, in re-runs anyway, that it became a favorite of a whole other generation than its original audience. There’s something about the lure of that time in life when you’re sort-of-an-adult and friends are the sun, the moon and the stars of your universe. That is particularly true when you live with them, in college and after. I lived with my college roommates for several years after graduating, and venturing out to the work world by day while still coming home to the kind of hours-long walks and talks at night that intense friendships offer was a gift.

Each season of life so far has seemed to bear its own fruit of new friends — “friends of the road” and “friends of the heart.” Coincidentally, these were definitions I first heard in a talk given by my college roommate in the waning days of senior year. By friends of the road, I mean those connections you make standing at the sidelines of soccer games or outside at school pick-up. Grabbing lunch in the office cafeteria. Chatting about college searches while waiting for a Zoom to start. Lamenting your teenagers’ eye-rolls. The conversation is friendly. You care about each other’s lives, kids, careers. You help each other out with