Tonight, one of my best friends and I were on FaceTime chatting for over 2.5 hours about work, life, wedding planning, and travel. It’s so weird that it’s been almost two years since she got married in Maui and moved to Singapore. That means it’s been two years since I planned her bridal shower and bachelorette party in Vegas, gave two maid of honor speeches at her two wedding receptions (one far better and memorable than the other… I still have deep regrets about not better planning the second one), and went dress shopping and fitting with her.

Now that I am engaged, she wants to do whatever she can from a distance to help, whether that means being on standby at her phone as I try on wedding dresses here so that I can Whatsapp her photos to get her feedback, or providing Excel sheet templates she used for planning her own two weddings, or being at potentially two wedding celebrations that we may have in two very different parts of the world — for me. All of this is making me really emotional as I hear her say all of these things.

That’s the thing about old friends. Even when parts of me may feel like we are growing apart, do not understand each other a lot of the time, and have a lot of differences, I have moments like this when I realize how much they really do care about me and want to do whatever is possible for me to be happy. And I can’t help but be overwhelmed with gratitude that there are people in my life who do care this much. Not everyone is as lucky as I am.