I am a very solid type of friend. Like an old hammer you lost in the grass after pitching a tent. When the grass gets cut and you find me many months later I will still be a decent hammer if a bit rusty in places.

A lot of my friends are like that too. I may not speak to them for ages but when I do it is like we only stopped chatting minutes beforehand.

I've had a couple of these moments recently. I went and visited a friend I hadn't seen in over a year at her new house. I bumped into a friend in the super market I hadn't seen since the Christmas before last. And an online friend I hadn't talked to in two years contacted me.

You always start with a summary. Go through the stand out low and high points. Hit on the relationships, the jobs, the things you enjoy. You go from these big things to the little ones. Your new favourite tv show, baking a cake, the silly things your pets do.

Good old friends are magic. They help you take a step back and look at your life. I realised visiting my friend that I need to see her more often. That with her I went on adventures and stepped outside my comfort zone. That I wanted to do that again.

With the friend I bumped into made me see i'm not the only one struggling to find a job I love in my twenties. That it is alright to flounder for a bit.

And my friend online reminded me that I can be creative. That I love to write and that once upon a time I did something helpful.

I think it is important especially for nervous wrecks like me to remember that going back to a friend even after an awkwardly long time is a wonderful thing. Not all friends are for life but some are and it is worth finding them out again.