The night ended as it often does: We were among the last restaurant patrons, filling it with laughter as the waitress filled our glasses with more beer (more water for me) and my heart filled with gratitude for these special people.

I was with a handful of my best friends and we were celebrating a recent birthday as we typically do — losing track of time during a dinner where the drinks flow as freely as the conversations and the desserts are as comforting as the company.

This close-knit circle of men and women include two of my kindergarten besties, one of whom was the first friend I ever made. I met the two at Mauka Lani Elementary School and the rest of the group while at Ilima Intermediate School.

At Campbell High School — where we supported one another through all the angst and drama that come with those often difficult years and shared teenage rites of passage together — we knew we had bonded for life. As adults, we’ve celebrated marriages and births and offered solace through divorces and death.

Over the past 30-plus years, our get-togethers have evolved from birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese to hotel parties after prom to club-hopping nights throughout college to holiday potlucks at each others’ home with our families.

These days with our frenzied schedules, our outings are limited to just birthdays and Christmas. So I always look forward to our time together. We unwind, catch up and sometimes argue. We laugh. We vent, counsel and reminisce. And we laugh some more.

This kind of effortless friendship has become a recent topic of discussion with my three daughters, especially my older tweens. I’ve been trying to instill in them the value of being a respectful, kind and dependable friend. I’ve told my girls that peer support is one way they’ll get through the ups and downs of their middle- and high-school years.

I’m hopeful they’ll be fortunate enough to have such faithful friends to stand by them through life. While I can’t choose their friends for them, I can certainly guide them and teach them the qualities to have and to look for in these relationships.

One of my best friends — my very first friend — recently texted me about talking to her own adolescent daughter about the importance of good friends.

“I’m so lucky to have had you growing up,” she texted. “Thank you for being my best (friend) always. … So grateful.”

“So grateful for you, too,” I texted back.

I need these people in my life. Just like family, we are as brutally honest with one another as we are fiercely loyal. We keep one another grounded. We remind one another of where we came from, how much we’ve accomplished and what more we have to look forward to in the future.

I’m eager to see everyone again for another birthday celebration next month. We have yet to decide when and where to celebrate, but I already know how the night will end.

“She Speaks” is a weekly column by the women writers of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@staradvertiser.com.