How do you know if your friends are real?

Real friends aren’t there to serenade you with praise all the time,
they are supposed to keep you in check,
letting you know when you are doing something unbelievably moronic,
because a real friend doesn’t want you to undermine yourself and your potential.

Friendships must be firmly grounded in truth.
If every time you try and articulate it,
the foundations of your relationship start to shake
and the walls start to cave in
then you simply don’t have a real friend.