I get made fun of a lot for my excessive use of hyperbole. "Oh my god, this is the best song EVER!" I cry when I hear 99% of songs. "I've never loved anything more than [insert thing that I've only known about for two days but somehow developed a deep and temporary obsession with]." And quite famously, my excessive use of "literally," even when I mean figuratively. I tend to laugh and apologize for doing these things when people call me out on it, which is often.
But one thing I will not apologize for is for calling a lot of people my best friends. Yes, I get called out for this one, too. "Annie, you think everyone is your best friend."
Firstly, that's not even remotely true, but I can see where people get that idea from. "OH MY GOD this person is my best friend" is something that I do say pretty often. But who came up with the notion that you have to put a cap on the amount of "best friends" you have, or even worse, that you can only have one best friend?
To me, that makes no sense. You can, and should, have multiple best friends. You can have your childhood best friends, your high school best friends, your college best friends, etc. Different people for different places, and for different points in your life. Picking one person and expecting them to be your everything, at all times, no matter what is a nice notion, but not only is it probably detrimental to their well-being, it could also leave you feeling a little lost when they're not around.
Your best friends are different from your regular friends. They know you on a deeper level, they're there for you under any and all circumstances, they're close with your family, and you can always count on them to show up. Why in the world would you want to limit that to one person?
People need other people. It's as simple as that, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably pretty lonely. When your high school best friend goes to college on the other side of the country, you and s/he are both going to need a best friend (or two, or more) in closer proximity to help you through the hard times. And when you come home and reunite with your best friends, you are going to be glad you have people everywhere you go.
The gist of it all is that your life is going to be fuller when you have more people in it. More best friends mean more sleepovers, more dinner dates, more day trips, more concerts, more adventures, more pictures, more life.
So don't be afraid to have more than one best friend. Let more people into your life and your days will be brighter, I promise you.