Best friend: a noun, a person’s closest friend.
I met my best friend when I was 10 years old. We were in the same 5th-grade class and she had on a really cool Little Miss Sunshine tee. Today we are both 18, at separate schools, and I still have that scar on my leg from where she bit me in the 6th grade.
When we were 16, my best friend, who had always lived just a few miles up the road, moved a solid 45 minutes away. For a girl who is afraid to drive on the highway, this was a rough move, and I felt like I was going to lose my best friend forever. It wasn’t until she moved that I realized that distance truly makes the heart grow fonder.
Now, the distance has grown. With her living in Grand Rapids, and myself in Detroit, we could go months without seeing each other. (Don’t worry, though, we talk to each other approximately 106 times a day). The distance has taught me that best friend means best friend and nothing will change that.
It's weird what sets a best friend apart from all your other friends. You don't need those silly necklaces to symbolize your friendship because, let's be real, you've already gone through like six of them, plus a few matching string bracelets. Your friendship is just like this strange bond filled with secrets, laughs, and lots of other things nobody else in the world could relate to. You’re best friend just gets you, the way nobody else does, and that’s really cool.
People grow and situations change and friends always grow apart. And that’s okay - change is okay. I have “my elementary school friends”, my “camp friends”, “my high school friends”. Those people have been there for me for those periods of my life, and I am so grateful they have helped me to learn and grow into the person I am still becoming. But my best friend, we are changing and growing together, even if that means we are no longer a part of each other’s everyday life.
I tell my best friend every day how much I love and appreciate her. I encourage you to do the same. Because a best friend might once have been a “school friend” or a “my mom makes me play with you friend” but now there is no going back (because I have thousands of mac photo booth photos of us together from middle school)!
If you haven’t talked to your best friend in a while, call them. Talk about your days, or something from the past that will make you both laugh and think “oh my god, we were so ridiculous!” People walk in and out of your life, but this is your best friend – what in the world would you do without them!? You wouldn’t have a partner in crime, a duet partner to your favorite song, or anyone to thank for the adventures along the way.
