Best Friends Through the Years

Me - Best friends through the years, wow!  When I was little my best friend was a boy. His mother knew my mother since they were little kids. He was my best friend for the first few years of my life. Then, in first grade, I had a different best friend who was a girl. In second grade, she started going to a different school. I had a different best friend again. She was a girl who lived down the street. She wasn't really very nice though because as soon as we weren't in the same class anymore, I only saw her when she had nothing better to do. Then, we had a big fight, and we didn't see each other at all. For a while, I didn't really have a best friend. Over the summer, I had a new best friend. My Dad had this friend who kept pushing my Dad to be friends with this woman that my Dad's friend liked. He kept pushing me and my little sister to meet and become friends with the woman's daughter. Her daughter is a year old then me. My sister met her and liked her so I decided to meet her. At first, I didn't like her but over time we became best friends. Eventually, my Dad was not really friends with the guy who pushed us to be friends with her and her Mom anymore. However, for a while, my family was really close with my friend and her family, and she and I were best friends and were especially close.  I was close with my best friend and her mother and grandmother. I really liked having a best friend, and I hoped we stay best friends for a long long time. However, once we went back to school since we are different ages, and live in different towns, we drifted apart. I went back to school and made new best friends.

Mom - I am lucky enough to have a husband who is my best friend. However, over the years, I have had many other best friends. When I was about three, I had two boy best friends. When I was a in elementary school, I lived somewhere else and had another best friend. In middle school, I again lived somewhere else and had another best friend the first year. When she moved, I had another best friend. When she and I drifted apart, I had another best friend who went to a different school. She and I remained best friends when we went to college even though we were at different colleges. My best friend at college was my college roommate. After college, I stayed friends with my college roommate and my other friend. However, things happened and my other best friend and I eventually drifted apart. Most of my adult life, I have had the same best friend. Sometimes, I think I would have liked to be one of those people who had the same best friend for their whole life or one of those people who had the same group of best friends for a long period of time like the girls on Sex and the City. Unfortunately, that is not the way my life has worked out. I mean I have valued my relationships with all of my best friends through the years especially my current best friend. However, the thing that scares me is that if something happens to my best friend even though I will still have my husband and my kids and other people in my life, in some ways I will be all alone. Since my  best friend has been in poor health for the last couple years, this is something I think and worry about a lot.

And that's our view. How many best friends have you had in your life?