The real wisdom here isn't about counting your friends or mourning transience—it's about recognizing that most relationships serve their purpose and then naturally conclude, which is perfectly fine. Roosevelt insists on a distinction rarely made: the difference between people who simply *pass through* your life (which she doesn't dismiss as failure) and those rare few whose presence fundamentally alters your internal landscape. When you find yourself still hearing a friend's laugh in your head years after they've moved away, or catching yourself thinking "she would have loved this," you're experiencing what she means by footprints. The insight frees you from the exhausting belief that every relationship must last forever to matter.