How Did You Meet Your Best Friend?

[sayak83]

I'll start: I met mine through a Reddit post I made seeking to meet new people. I didn't expect it to result in any long-term friendship, much less a close one. She has been my best friend for years now, though, and she means the world to me.

What about you? How did you meet your best friend?

By dating.
She is my wife.

 

[Vee]

I'll start: I met mine through a Reddit post I made seeking to meet new people. I didn't expect it to result in any long-term friendship, much less a close one. She has been my best friend for years now, though, and she means the world to me.

What about you? How did you meet your best friend?

I had a best friend most of my life. We met as kids and she was like a sister to me for many years. I had to move for professional reasons, but we remained friends for many years.
Our relationship cooled because she's always had a relationship that I consider toxic with her parents and that caused issues between us. She comes from a wealthy family that gave her everything money can buy, but her father is extremely controlling, and he's been in charge of every aspect of her life until today (she's nearly 40!).
I'm not going to get into the boring details but this ruined her relationships with men. She really wanted to find someone and have a family, but it never worked because no one was "good enough". The first two items on her father's check list is that the guy needs to be rich and have a degree of some kind, preferably lawyer or doctor. Even though she has a job and lives by herself, albeit in the apartment her parents gave her, she never set boundaries and until this day, she lives on her father's shade.
She's been so emotionally messed up that a while ago I asked her to see a therapist. It got to a point that was way beyond anything I could do. I advised her to get professional help repeatedly and one day, she decided to give a try.
She did a few sessions and she was really happy and I was relived she was getting better and seeing the good results she could get from therapy. It was short lived. She told her parents she was seeing a therapist and her father told her to stop going, that they would sort her issues as a family. When she told me I was so mad.
That's what made me take some distance. I wish I could do more for her and continue to have the beautiful friendship we once had, but I don't have the energy to deal with her relationship with her parents anymore. We still talk to each other once in a while but it hasn't been the same for a long time. I really miss her, and I still feel that the "best friend" place belongs to her and I don't want to give it to anyone else. I guess I don't have a best friend at the moment.

 

[Aštra’el]

First one, I met at a Fall Festival in fourth grade, in a small town in southwest Texas. Kicked off from there, my longest friendship. The one and only original.

Second one, I met at a dojo in Phoenix where I was an S.I. during college. We trained together and fought each other, often, in and out of the dojo and at the gym and out in the desert while hiking. This is the most flexible person I know, as well as the calmest and most disciplined, with incredible martial arts technique. I trust this person with my life.

Third one… I drove up in my Impala to my apt when I was living in Vegas. He was sitting outside his door at the bottom of the stairs, just chillin with his gf, and a dog, with a ****ing tie die shirt smoking weed and playing guitar. At first glance he looked like some random long haired hippie but when we made eye contact something inside gave me this fateful feeling that someday many years from know this would be the last face I see before I die. I don’t know why I thought that but it had the opposite effect. I was intrigued. We began talking like we’d known each other forever, and resonated immediately. The days went by and next thing you know he was teaching me bouldering and passing on special forces training. Appearances can be deceiving. I also trust him with my life. Completely.

#3 and #2 are my favorite people in the world to go hiking with, and explore the desert, and just train. And talk. Everything we do feels like it was meant to be. I can be completely 100% open and honest with them, and can talk to them about literally anything and everything… things most people never even dream of, and things that would drive away most. They completely accept the most beautiful and the most terrible sides of who I am. There is no judgment at all and no moral barriers preventing me from expressing my true nature. They operate on similar wavelengths- and there is no need with them to ever “justify” or explain my actions. Never. I am truly honored to have these two in my life.

#1… the relationship is complicated. The other two are ride or die. This one… well. It’s not. “Right” and “wrong” gets in the way of that. Regardless, I genuinely love and respect this person and I value the connection that developed… despite any conflicts that have arisen between us.

 

[Batya]

I have always been a bit of a loner, it is very difficult for me to go beyond a superficial level in friendships. When I was very young I had a best friend, my family moved and we began writing, but it fizzled out kind of after a couple years. So other than that, no best friends until my now husband (newly married! ), we met at a group that was camping for Sukkot (biblical Feast of Tabernacles). My mom introduced us and I was very annoyed because I was busy at the moment lol, but surprise surprise, he is amazing and definitely the best friend I've ever had.

 

[JIMMY12345]

I'll start: I met mine through a Reddit post I made seeking to meet new people. I didn't expect it to result in any long-term friendship, much less a close one. She has been my best friend for years now, though, and she means the world to me.

What about you? How did you meet your best friend?

Visiting a kennel.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Like others perhaps, I have been a serial 'best friender', starting at primary school, through secondary school and college to work, and where so often we parted when they moved away and/or got married. All males, and often sharing interests, and apparently this is why so many friendships do fall apart - when they just aren't kept up - unlike partnerships.

Most were formed because our outlook on life and/or interests often coincided - and with few regrets as to such. For some we shared some of the very best experiences.