Best Friend Semantics

I realized the other day that I use the phrase “best friend” somewhat loosely these days and I think I always have. When people, typically girls, are younger, the concept of a “best friend” somehow develops great importance. We grasp onto them and bestow unto them this title that may or may not be the desired outcome of the relationship.

In the third grade, I had two best friends and we even went so far as to go to Claire’s and buy one of those three-part best friend heart necklaces. It lasted a whole week before we decided that it was more trouble than it was worth and that we were getting into more fights with each other than with our siblings. Problem.

Fast forward to junior high, where I moved cross-country to a brand new town, school, the works. I had actually started to like the old place, so this move was particularly brutal. Argh. Either way, I started school and quickly acquired another best friend. She was very nice, very quiet, and seemed to put up well with me. We remained close friends until our sophomore year of high school, when a rather dramatic split took place and she became best friends with a girl who detests me to this day. Seriously. We were fifteen. I know! Fortunately for me, the lovely Miss M moved to town right around that time and we became inseparable for the rest of high school and the better part of college. In fact, I was actually over at her house last night, introducing her to Indie Rocker.

Miss M and I have an interesting relationship insofar as since we’ve graduated, we have this remarkable ability to largely live in the same state, talk every so often, but almost psychically still know what is going on with the other one. Blogs help, but sometimes you just know something’s going on and call anyway. Or drop into work. Or whatever, really.

It’s cool that way.

I keep calling several of my friends my best friend, and one of my coworkers actually insisted that I clarify the other day, since she couldn't figure out who I was talking about. It was kind of funny, actually.

I met someone last night who dropped the term “best friend” even more than I did and I realized then that “best friend” isn’t singular anymore. I mean, how can it be? Nothing’s as cut and dried as it was when I was 8 and as the story above demonstrates, even at age 8 we screwed it up.

Quote of the Day: “What if there was no time/And no reason or why?/What if you should decide that you don’t want me there by your side?/That you don’t want me there in your life?/What if I got it wrong/And no poem or song/could put right what I got wrong/or make you feel I belong?/And What if you should decide that you don’t want me there by your side/That you don’t want me there in your life?” What If, Coldplay.