Are there lifelong friendships?

  For a long time, I believed that a platonic friendship was one that made perfect sense at a certain moment in life - so much so that it seemed immune to time - but that would eventually end as soon as the context around it changed.
While researching this topic, I ended up realizing I was completely wrong. So I’m going to share a bit of historical background so you don’t make the same mistake I did.

  According to some sources, including Vogue Portugal, the expression “platonic love” was first defended - though never literally used - by Platon. According to him, it was a kind of essentially pure love, one that wasn’t based on any kind of interest (but on virtue instead) and free of passions - which, for him, were blind, material, fleeting, and false.

  That said, I want to return to the original question: Do lifelong friendships really exist?
Since I’m not exactly elderly, I can’t say with certainty whether they do or not - but I’d like to share my opinion. Of course I believe it’s possible to have friendships that last a lifetime. But I also believe they’re extremely hard to find.
And maybe those are the true platonic friendships - the ones defined by a love that is essentially pure, not based on any interest, and free of passion.

  In a way, it might sound strange for me to say that, since I don’t have many friendships. And out of the few I do have, I’d bet my life that two of them are for life. It sounds great - that would be a pretty high success rate for something considered rare. But that’s just how I feel.

  And that leads me to wonder: Why is it that some friendships feel like they’ll last forever… and then suddenly stop making sense?
Over the years, I’ve had several friendships with classmates - and I always knew those would eventually come to an end. But there was one that caught me off guard. Let’s call her Emily.

Emily was part of my friend group, which also included my two closest friends.
For quite a while - maybe because I didn’t want to see things clearly - I thought my friendship with her would last a long time too.
But that turned out not to be true.

After a disagreement - something that almost never happens with my two closest friends - Emily didn’t really show much interest in fixing things.
And I didn’t feel it made sense to chase after someone who had a problem with me but didn’t want to talk about it.
So, we both just moved on.

  That made me go back in my mind (a co
mmon habit of mine, as I’ve mentioned in another piece) and “revisit” a few things from the past.
And honestly, it was pretty clear that friendship wasn’t going to last - I just didn’t see it at the time.
Whenever our group met, the conversation almost always revolved around her.
In many situations, doing things as a trio made more sense than including her.
And when it came to our visions of the future, she was the only one without any kind of direction or perspective.

  Looking at it that way, of course it was never going to be a lasting friendship.
But while I was living it, I genuinely believed it would be.
That made me realise something: not every connection is meant to last forever - and some, no matter how intense they are at the time, are only meant to exist for that particular chapter.

  Maybe the real trick is knowing how to tell when it’s worth fighting for a friendship - and when it’s time to let it go.

And what about you? Do you think we should fight for every connection?