The feeling of an arm around your shoulders. A place to rest your head. A listening ear. A partner in crime. Someone to laugh with. There’s really nothing like the feeling of a true friend. The feeling of someone just being there for you and making sure you know that you matter. What better way to tell someone you’ll always be there for them than by having their back at all times?

It’s not just the feeling of being loved, but also the feeling of being protected and safe. Anyone can profess their love for another person, but it’s the real friends and significant others who make a person feel like they are always safe. Just the same, anyone can say, “Got your back,” but there’s a strange sense of awareness when you really feel like your back is guarded. It’s like a gut feeling when we know we’ve made a real ride-or-die friend.

That gut feeling is called trust and for some reason it is a rare luxury in this world. It feels like in the few past years that everyone has trust issues and no one can really lean on anyone else. We try to let ourselves believe our back is protected but there’s always an odd sense of distrust that keeps everyone from feeling truly safe. The world has become such a stressful place that we can’t even trust each other to lay our head on another’s shoulder.

True friends are so hard to find, but right now we all just need to have each other’s backs. No one has to suffer or feel unprotected if we all just take care of the people around us. Let’s all be each other’s true friend and look out for one another. I’ve got your back and hopefully you’ve got mine.