From the time when children go to kindergarten to the time high school or college rolls around, they make and lose friends. Sometimes friendships end with a falling out, or sometimes people simply grow apart or some friends even stay together throughout their entire life experience.

Regardless, friends are a special thing. They are people to rely on, spend time with and help out in times of need. But is there a difference between old friends and new ones?

When two people have spent time together for many years, they tend to have a closer friendship and can often be more comfortable around each other.

However, when two people have not known each other for very long, are they still able to have the same kind of relationship?

Many people will meet someone for the first time and, realizing they have much in common, immediately become the best of friends. Other friendships will take longer to develop. But no matter what kind of friend, all friends are meaningful in the lives of humans, who have the basic need of love and compassion.

Friendship affects the lives of everyone, whether it is highschoolers or fictional characters in books and TV shows. Lane Kim and Rory Gilmore, two long standing best friends from the TV series Gilmore Girls, represent the type of best friends who don’t let anything come between them. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, represent the best friends who may fight on a regular basis but always make up.

Best friends, regardless of whether the friendship is “perfect,” always need each other and will come back to each other. It seems to make no difference if people have known each other for eight years or eight days. Friends are friends, whether they have been around since kindergarten or not.