Best Friend?

My best friend has been my best friend for 8 years now. I believe it is possible to have more than one best friend at the same time. Especially if you have different groups of friends for different aspects of your life. Like maybe you have a best friend at work, and a best friend neighbor, and a childhood best friend you still keep in touch with. I've had quite a few best friends in my life. Most of them were from back when I was a child. In my adult years I've had a few really close friends, but really only one friend I'd consider my best friend.

Yes, I believe there are different kinds of best friends. I have two in particular who have been friends of mine since we were small children. In spite of the longevity of our friendship, I would never feel comfortable sharing deep thoughts with them or conversing with them about serious issues. They're good people to hang around if you want to feel like a kid again as that childlike spirit has never left them. Could I spend 24 hours a day with them? I don't believe I could, to be honest. It's probably the reason we have stayed friends for so long - we haven't lived together. We don't have very many hobbies/interests in common and because of my private nature, I don't think they understand me very well. But they are absolutely fun people, and very easy to talk to nonetheless.

I have several other best friends who I most certainly would converse with on a deep level, and have done so on occasion. These friends are a lot more serious in their outlook on the world and are introverts like me, which is good for me. One of them has taken a career path very similar to mine, so we can always encourage each other and sympathize with each other in such a way that those who have not taken the road we've traveled would not be able to. That kind of support has been a very special gift indeed. These friends are all scattered about the world, so pretty much the only way we stay in touch is by e-mail and a very occasional snail mail. But there is a great sense of trust and loyalty that is present. We want the best for each other, and I can certainly feel it in the way they act and treat me, and I hope they feel the same about me.

Oh, and my other best friend (if indeed she counts!) would be my cat! I, for one, certainly can't ever leave her out of any friends lists. She's by far the most sweet, forgiving and the easiest to get along with out of all the friendships I have formed over the course of my life. She is asleep right behind me as I write this, in fact!

In answering the question of how many different best friends I have had in my life, I would say there have probably been five or six counting those from early childhood. As for the most I have ever had at one time, I would probably say right now there are about four or five, but like I said, they are scattered around in different places. I don't have an extremely large circle of friends either, so these select few may very well be the only people outside of "family friends" who I would truly call friends. It is hard for me to make friends as I am not a very social person.

Yes I have more than one best friend.
My best friend I've known the longest has been around 6-7 years. But then I have other "best friends". I think sometimes for different parts of our lives. There is a friend that I may talk about everything with, and another might be someone that we have certain interests, etc.

But I have changed alot in the last few years. I have just a couple of friends that I consider best friends. There are many now that are just what I call aquaintances.

I think you can have more than one very close friend, but if they're equally close then there isn't a "best".

I had three or four close friends in childhood, and which one was my "best friend" depended on which one I was hanging out with the most in one particular time period (sometimes a school year, sometimes a couple of school years). If one girl was in my class I may spend more time with her that school year, but then if the other was in my class or Girl Scout troop, I may spend more time with that girl for a period of time.

From seventh grade on I had one best friend, and one second-closest friend. The three of us would hang out with another "set" of three girls; so we were kind of a circle of six close friends (but two distinct groups of three closer friends).

My best friend was killed in a car crash just show our 21st birthday, so my second-closest friend became my best friend (kind of the way a vice president becomes president when a president dies or resigns:) ). She and I stayed close until we drifted in our thirties.

Then, left over from high school and from different places after high school, I had met four or five other fairly close friends. They were my "close-but-not-best" friends throughout my twenties and on.

When I drifted from the "vice president turned president" best friend, I never really made another super-close best friend. Life was too busy. I had my family and husband. I made it a point to see each friend every so often, but there was no, one, best, friend.

Once when I was talking about my best friend having been killed in the accident, someone said, "Well, at the age you both were you probably would have eventually drifted anyway." Maybe that was true. I had had the very close, best friend, through the years when best friends can mean the most to girls. The accident (and shared loss of our friend) brought me and the "vice president turned president" friend closer together, and I think we stayed together longer than we otherwise would have if it hadn't happened.

Today, I have several friends who aren't all that close; and none who is particularly close - but that's fine. I've found that having my family and extended family, and otherwise having my own life, I don't really have time to be doing much socializing these days. The occasional lunch or coffee with a friend or relative can be particularly nice when, otherwise, there's not much time.

i met my bestfriend 19 years ago. and though we're oceans apart and very seldom talk, we still know in our hearts that we'll always be there for each other.

other than her, i have very few close friends - 4 others from high school whom i get to see and talk every now and then, one from my present job, a cousin, my sister and my sister-in-law who now lives abroad too.

the level of closeness may vary but my willingness to
be there when they need me will always be the same.