"Best Friends"

From about first grade until around fifth or sixth grade my best friend was Elizabeth, a girl who went to my school and lived nearby. In fifth grade she went to the public school in town, and I continued attending the Catholic school. Until then we had been inseparable. We started seeing each other less and less, and we both made new friends. The title of "best friends" that we had given ourselves steadily turned into just "friends" and we rarely saw each other.

After that my "best friends" switched from year to year. I wouldn't realize it right away, but every summer I would notice that I was hanging out with different people than I had the summer before. The summer after freshman year I had four best friends. The next summer it changed and I still had four best friends, but 3 of them were different than the last year. By the end of last summer, my best friends had changed again.

This summer, I have three best friends. One of them has never been on the roster of best friends before and I regret not knowing her for the past 2 years. Thank God for bringing her into my life this year. These are my best friends, not in any particular order, because I love them all the same.

My first best friend is crazy, just like me. She gives me good advice and understands what I am feeling. We always have a great time together and I know that next summer, she will still be one of my best friends.

My second best friend is my little Bumblebee. I call her Bee for short sometimes. Haha. For short. Bee will understand. Bee holds me and my first best friend together. I would not be able to stay remotely sane without her. She tells me things that I don't want to hear. She tries to knock some sense into me. She comforts me and she is a nice Bumblebee so she never stings. I've never heard her say a bad thing about anyone. I need to take a leaf out of her book.

My third best friend, I have known since fourth grade, but we never became friends until high school. She is always there for me, and she is not afraid to tell me things I don't want to hear. She is so generous in everything she does. I'm so glad we went to the same high school otherwise we would have never become friends.

My two preceding summers, I had four best friends. I think I started this summer off with four as well. There is always room, number four, if you ever want to come back. There is always room for you at the inn.

But I've also found a new kind of best friend this summer. His name is Jesus. That's all I'm going to say.

But lately I've been wondering exactly what it means to be best friends. I mean, Person A could hang out with Person B all the time and have the time of his or her life with Person B and trust Person B, but does that mean that Person B is their best friend? What if there is a Person C? And Person A never notices Person C, but Person C cares more about Person A than Person B does and would do anything for Person A, while Person B would only go so far? Wouldn't Person C, then, be the best friend of Person A? Doesn't it make sense that your best friend would be the one who cared about you the most and did the most for you and everything? It's so confusing, the term "best friend."

This is just what I have been thinking about lately. What if we all have a best friend that we forget about, or just don't notice?

xoxograce