I have always been of the mindset that it is absolutely possible to have more than one best friend. In fact, the very notion of why anyone would limit themselves to a single best friend baffles me - friendship should not be a competition to see who you are closest with, rather it is a judgment of character and in my own experience this closeness should not and is not easily earned.

Even when I was in elementary school I didn't understand why so many fights would break out over who someone's "best friend" was. Granted, my friendships in elementary school were not with the nicest of people, something that I struggled with for most of my time in public school, but I knew that I felt closer to different people at different times. There didn't need to be any major falling-outs just to win over one girl's title of "best friend," we could all be close and multiple times I also found myself hurt when others would simply say to me, "You're my friend, but they're my best friend and I can't have more than one best friend."

Obviously, not everyone can or should be your best friend. For me personally, after being continuously disappointed by those who I had once considered to be my closest friends throughout high school when I entered college, I became very selective with who I remained in regular contact with. Now in my third year of college, I have a handful of friends from high school that I check in on regularly, whether it be on Snapchat or Facebook, but I no longer mourn the loss of the others that I had once considered to be my best friends at that point in time. Time moves on, people change, new friends are made, and the people that make an effort to stay in your life will and I am incredibly grateful for the friends that I still have from that point in my life.

In college, I again, have become best friends with some of the most wonderful people. I have best friends that I made through my school's dance club, others I made through becoming an orientation leader, and one of them is a Spanish major like me. I even made a few incredibly close friends my freshman year simply by continuously visiting the same residence hall every day and I slowly but surely formed great relationships with the different people that lived there.

I also feel completely comfortable telling people that my boyfriend is my best friend, or that my mom is my best friend because they supply all of the love and support that a best friend should. At the end of the day, your best friends in life are the ones that care for you the same way that you care for them, and it is so much kinder to find that support in a few people as opposed to expecting it all from a single person.