Friends are the family we get to choose for ourselves, and if you’re lucky, you have at least one person in your life that you’ve been friends with for a long, long time.

That being said, let me introduce you to my best friend Melanie. We met the summer after sixth grade at basketball tryouts. It was a match made in middle school heaven. We both loved sports, ice cream, Disney channel and sweatpants. We also both had braces, wore glittery blue eyeshadow and sported polo shirts on the reg.

(Disclaimer: if you find someone who still wants to be your friend after your most awkward season of life, please hold on to that person.)

Fast forward to the present. I recently went to watch Melanie coach her middle school volleyball team. While I was sitting on the bleachers watching the team warm up, I let my mind wander down memory lane, all the way back to middle school. I started thinking about what I've learned after being best friends with Mel for over 12 years, and I came up with a list of some of the most important truths when it comes to having a long-time best friend. Some are funny. Some are sappy. All are 100 percent true and have actually happened to us on at least one occasion in the past decade.

I’m sure if you’ve had a long-time best friend, you’ll be able to relate to at least a few of these. And if you don't have a long-time best friend, I hope and pray that you find someone as wonderful as mine.

1. You drive to her house when she's home alone so she won't be paranoid or lonely.

2. You buy her favorite snacks for your pantry so it's stocked the next time she comes over.

3. You have the liberty to tell her those pants make her butt look big, and then have fun as you listen to her decide whether or not that's a good thing.

4. You go shopping for yourself, but instead, you find a bunch of things you know she'd love.

5. You don't have to pay her back every time she buys you something because you both have an ongoing tab.

6. You're both perfectly okay with being silent in the car and just enjoying the ride.

7. You don't just tell her that her makeup is messed up. You lick your thumb and wipe it off for her just like her mom would.

8. You see cool old ladies in coffee shops and talk about how that's going to be you two someday.

9. You know you need her stamp of approval for your significant other before you will allow the relationship to go any further.

10. You leave clothes at her house, and she wears them until you ask for them back.

11. You know her favorite drink at Starbucks without having to write it down...even if it is a grande skinny decaf toffee nut mocha with caramel drizzle and no whipped cream.

12. You know when something is bothering her, and you have the courage to ask what it is.

13. You understand that sometimes she doesn't need you to solve her problem. She just needs you to listen to her.

14. You can pee with the bathroom door open because there are literally no more boundaries.

15. You can laugh at pictures of the two of you from middle school when you thought duck faces and peace signs were cool.

16. You work on compiling stories for your Maid of Honor speech before she's even engaged.

17. You make a rule that your husbands will have to be best friends too because they're going to be neighbors one day, and they'll host barbecues together during football season.

18. You have no doubt in your mind that you really are going to be best friends forever because you've already survived middle school, high school, college, first jobs, breakups, sports teams, tear-filled fights, long distances and a million cases of PMS.