In all honesty, what counts to you as a “friend”?

I turned 33 today.

Sitting here with some Devil’s Lettuce, taking honest stock of the people in my life, and I landed on something interesting to me, I’d call about 99% of them acquaintances. Even the ones I’d call real friends feel loose these days and some of these are people who felt like brothers to me at one point.

It made me realize “friend” might be one of those words like “love.” Everybody uses it, nobody means quite the same thing by it, and the definition is totally subjective.

So I’ll ask it straight: what actually makes someone a friend to you? Not the dictionary answer,

Yours.