Laotong, or "same old"

Everyone knows what's a best friend: that one person you can share anything with, the one person you sometimes trust and rely on more than your own family, the one person that will always be there for you, the one person you will do anything for, the one person you will stay forever connected to; this is a best friend, and people don't come by a genuine one quite too often in a lifetime. It is an experience you cannot define until you met that one person, someone as important, or even more vital than the love of your life. In China, the equivalent would be called a "laotong", meaning "same olds", and through the connotations of old, like growing old together through thick and thin, constituting the idea of eternalness and friendship link and same, like two united as one, the similarities shared, one can see the connection of the idea of BBFs in the chinese use of "laotong".