...it's time for a poll!I got an email the other day from a friend of mine who now lives in Belgium. (Amy B., if you happen to read this, HI!!! It was so wonderful to hear from you!)
Amy B. said something once that I've never forgotten. She said that her "best friend" is always someone that lives nearby to her. What she needs is a best friend who is close at hand. She's moved around a lot in her life, and she's a great person and is likable and fun and friendly and easy to get to know. Even though she remains friends and stays in contact after she's moved away, she makes a new best friend with someone who lives near her new home.
As a person who has never felt like I've quite got a handle on how to make, maintain, and keep friends, I am curious about everything I hear from people about how they do these things. I know that friends are so important, as important as family, and I am very grateful for those friends of mine who have remained my friends in spite of my deficiencies.
So here is my question for today: Do you have the same best friend you had when you were a kid or in some stage in life other than the one you are in now? Or is your best friend someone new in your life? Or are you socially backward and blindly stumbling through trying to figure it all out as you go along, like I am?
I met my best friend when she & Andy worked together at KMart while in college. And they figured out, one drunken evening, that they actually sat next to each other in 3rd grade. :)
ReplyDeleteSo, yea, she's been around for awhile now! And I'm keepin' her!
I dont really have a best friend, but that is not something new for me. I have never really had that kind of trust in someone to make that kind of connection. Not sad, I have friends - but spending time with them outside of the environment that I met them....not so much. Again, I have always kind of been this way...I always think of my husband as a best friend. That is enough for me. I find that I dont really connect with women on a "best friend" level.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a best friend--and I don't know anyone from my childhood, anymore.
ReplyDeleteI have had friends in the past that I did things with and enjoyed their company, but going to work every day, I don't have time now.
I would agree with Jennie, my husband is not only my best friend, but the main person who goes places with me and that I spend much time with--also Mark and Calysta.
I've never figured it out either, Amy.
I have 3-4 women I think of as my besties. I couldn't imagine my life without any of them. I've known them 25 years, 10 years, going on 4 years for the other 2.
ReplyDeleteI have three to four as well, and keep in tough with one or two people from the old days. I would say though, quite honestly, that my sisters are my best friends. The ones I want to be around all the time, the ones I admore most. For different reasons.
ReplyDeleteI think I've called a very few others my best friends in the past, but always longed for that Anne of Green Gables "bosom friend". I generally stay in touch with old friends even when we go separate ways. I'm still in touch with my friend R, whom I've known since we were 3, but I'm not as close to her emotionally as I am to my near-by besties now. Months go by without contact. With my besties now... I can't go 3 days without contact before I'm worrying. I have 2 best besties, and lots of very good friends. I'm always just a teensy bit worried though - do they like me as much as I like them, are they getting sick of me, do I annoy them, do I disgust them... you know, worries that I hope are normal... and unwarranted. :o)
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