Family

Someone once told me that friends are life's way of making up for family. Personally, I think our friends are meant to be our family, not just an apology for the people to whom we accidentally ended up related.
Today, my technical director taught one of my friends how to drive a stick-shift. It seemed sad to think he wasn't doing it with his dad, but really, our TD is a lot like his dad, so it was really sweet. Today, we all worked to help a friend get a date for prom. It felt so sibling like. We laughed over a shared breakfast. We are family. Sure, we're not blood, but we're closer than that.
Think about it. You talk to your friends more than you probably talk to your cousins. You're more likely to help a friend pick out a new puppy than to hear that your aunt has just started playing the piano. We live our lives with out friends these days. Maybe, in about 75 years, an anthropologist will tell us if that's a good thing for society, and I'm sure in two minutes a shrink will post on a different blog what all of this is really saying about us as a culture, but for now, all I know is that's how we roll.
Together.