I Became Best Friends with my BFF in the Dumbest Way

 

    The acronym BFF. Best Friends Forever. These words honestly brings up an annoying memory for me. When I was in 3rd grade I had a best friend named Aliyah. We did everything at school together when we could. We played at recess together, spending times on the swings or jumping rope in our favorite patch of grass. (Yes, we had a favorite patch of grass. This patch of grass was a different type and color to the rest of the grass in the field we played in.) 

Then 4th grade came around and Aliyah and I stayed close friends. We were still in all of the same classes and we still hung out at recess. About halfway into the year, we had a class assignment to do and it needed to be completed in pairs. The only difference was my teacher selected random kids to pick their partners. A girl named Amanda was selected to choose her partner and she picked me to be her partner even though I had barely had any conversations with her. This made me kinda annoyed as I wasn't able to work with my friend on this project. 

    Flash forward a few months and Amanda began to hang out with myself and Aliyah during recess. The three of us got along pretty well. We had similar interests in reading and for those few months everything was great. Then things started to spiral down hill. It began when one of them asked "Rebecca who is your best friend?".

    I responded with something along the lines of "I don't know." Yeah...that was not the correct answer. Both of them proceeded to tell me how I had to have a best friend and there could only be one best friend. Therefore I would have to choose between them. I knew how if I chose one of them, the other would hate me. This is when I had the brilliant idea to tell each of them individually, hoping that neither would talk to the other and my answer would be acceptable. I was so wrong. Both of them talked to each other about what I had told each of them and then confronted me one day at recess. Being dumb 4th graders they then said that I had to select one of them as my best friend, not both of them. Personally, I saw them as equals but during that moment I broke down and selected the first name that came to my mind which was Amanda. 

    Similar to what I had thought, Aliyah there after hated my guts for not selecting her, who I had been friends with for longer. Amanda was quite happy as she saw it as she had won the "competition". I never tried to rebuild a friendship with Aliyah. To me, I saw this whole competition thing as stupid and felt as though true friends wouldn't be made at each other for something so stupid. 

    I continued to remain friends with Amanda and thankfully she grew out of this "competition" phase. We became closer friends two years later and through our similar experiences from our home lives, we bonded and became very close friends. I guess you could say we are not your typical "best friends". Our personalities are not super similar. We have some similar interests, that we bond over but the reason I consider the two of us best friends is because we've managed to remain friends after such a long time. We are at the point in our friendship where we know how the other person acts/even things they say even before they say them. We also know when the other is upset and how to give them advice and/or comfort them. 

Are you and your best friend very similar to each other or complete opposites? Do you and your best friend plan on working and living in the same area?