It’s Release week for Buzz Girl Wendy Toliver’s LIFTED.Yay, Wendy! Ever since I heard the premise, I've been excited to read this book.
So, do you remember your first best friend? My very best friend in grade school had the exact same birthday as me – well, off by one year, but the same day.
I loved going to her house. It was quiet there since she only had one sister (compared to my big family) and there was junk food in her kitchen – always chips, always ice cream. That was so much better than the hippie fare at my house like zucchini sticks, carob chips, and fruit leather.
We’d listen to her record collection and play with her oodles of Barbies in their perfect dream house. She had every stuffed Snoopy doll there was, even Dr. Snoopy. We made hours of fake radio shows on her tape recorder. We played pool and pachinko and stayed up late.
But our friendship was based on… I’m not sure. Who knows why you bond to someone and love them for years? Maybe it was the fact that we were both semi-outsiders – she was a little dorky and had trouble reading, I was a little dorky and wore head-gear for my overbite.
We met early in school, maybe 2nd grade. Even if I don’t recall how we got to be friends, I remember spending many hours enjoying her company. Sadly, I lost touch with her when my family moved to the other side of town after seventh grade – I only remember visiting her once after that and it wasn’t the same.
Have you ever lost touch with a childhood friend like that? I have the feeling you can never go back to the way it was. The world you once created together exists in its own place and time.
CONTEST:
In comments, tell me about how you got to be best friends with your bff and you’ll be entered to win Wendy Toliver’s LIFTED. Winners will be announced this weekend.
Hugs,
Heather
The Clearing -- HMH April 2010
Wherever You Go – Harcourt Fall 2011
Never Cry Werewolf – Harperteen 09/09 - Paperback 09/10
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22 comments:
I bet my best friend in first grade when I moved to a new school.. Her and I don't hang out as much anymore since I have kids and she doesn't but we are always there for each other.
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Good post, Heather. Isn't it weird how sometimes you can be best friends with someone for a huge chunk if not all of your life and you can't recall exactly the "come together" moment? I know I met my first true best friend in 2nd grade, and that I was new and she was really pretty and nice and crazy (in a really good way). We talked on the phone and went over to each other's houses. We stayed friends even when we went to different jr highs and high schools ... I remember feeling lucky to have a friend like her! :)
Yes, I've lost a few friends that way. However, thanks to Facebook, I've reconnected with a few.
I actually don't remember that "come together" moment because my best friend and I have been best friends, as we always say, "since we were zero."
Our families lived across the street from one another when we were born, and our moms walked us in our strollers together. When we were three, they signed us both up for tap, ballet, and jazz dance classes. We attended the same school through first grade (they moved after that), but we had such a strong base to our friendship, we kept it up all these years!
There's never been a time in my life where I didn't know her.
I really love this contest, BTW. It's so fun reading about everyone's best friends. :)
Yes, I've lost a few friends that way. However, thanks to Facebook, I've reconnected with a few.
I actually don't remember that "come together" moment because my best friend and I have been best friends, as we always say, "since we were zero."
Our families lived across the street from one another when we were born, and our moms walked us in our strollers together. When we were three, they signed us both up for tap, ballet, and jazz dance classes. We attended the same school through first grade (they moved after that), but we had such a strong base to our friendship, we kept it up all these years!
There's never been a time in my life where I didn't know her.
I really love this contest, BTW. It's so fun reading about everyone's best friends. :)
Oops - sorry to comment twice. Didn't mean to!
I've had a few best friends throughout my life, the first being a girl called Victoria when we were both nearly 5 years old but I moved away and that was the end of that.
Then when I moved to where I live now, I became best friends with two girls; Traci and Jo. They were both older than me (Traci by a year, Jo by two years) but somehow that lasted from when we were kids up until we were teenagers (the Traci friendship lasted longer).
With Jo, because she was older she was going through different things which caused us to drift apart... that was less of an issue with Traci, but because we became friends at such a young age, as we got older we realised how different we were and at first those differences didn't matter but it got to the point where we just wanted different things and had different ideas of fun and the time we spent hanging out lessened. It'd go from days not seeing each other, to weeks and months - she moved house twice, each time further away from where I lived.
It wasn't so far that we couldn't have made it work, and I still adore her, she was such a big part of my life for so long - it didn't end on bad terms, it didn't seem to end at all, somewhere down the line we just stopped contacting each other. It makes me feel sad and nostalgic, but I get it, it was a mutual thing.
While the Traci thing was crumbling, I was becoming close friends with someone I had always gone to school with - she was one of my best friends (in school - my friends in school were always seperate from my friends outside of school because my friends out of school were older than me) but when we got to high school we had just drifted apart, were hanging with different people. But we ended up in some of the same classes, hanging around with the same group of friends (this was when we were about 16) and over the last few years of high school she just became my best friend all over again.
I have two best friends now, Luke (a.k.a Roo) and Sarah (a.k.a. Batman) and they just... get me. They know things about me that I've never told anyone else. We have the same sense of humour and even though we're all really different, we have the weirdest mutual interests and agree on the oddest of things.
My friends have always been like the family I got to choose - after my dad died, I couldn't really be myself with my actual family, my friends got me through all the bad things and I feel more like me when I'm around them.
This comment probably makes it sound like I throw the term "best friend" around lightly, trust me, I don't... I consider best friends the ones you're closer to than anyone else, they know you better than anyone else.
My best childhood friend lived across the street from me. We were literally in playpens together. We went through 7th grade together, and then my family moved to AZ. (We had been in NC). My best friend ended up falling in love w/a jerk and having 4 children by the time she was 20. He, of course, is gone, and she's had to live with her parents the last 20 years as she raised her 4 boys by herself. We reconnected around 20 or so & I have been back to NC to see her several times, we are on FB, e-mail, etc. Even after all the time, all the differences in our lives, she's my best friend. I would always do anything for her.
Great topic!
I first met my best friend at church camp sometime during high school, but we weren't friends then. In fact, she scared me a little because she was so outgoing and I was so shy. We ended up going to the same collge. I ran into her at one of the visitation days. Then at the end of our sophomore year, she came up and and said, "I hear you need a new roommate for next year. Would you like to room together?" We've been best friends ever since. We are very different on the outside, but alike where it counts.
Wow, this is a good one, it brought back a lot of forgotten memories--First I was going to tell you about Amanda, in grade school, who told me she wanted to get "best friend" necklaces--I had no idea what she was talking about until Jessica gave me one the next day...oops...
But then I remembered Heather from preschool, who lived down the block from me, who I had fun with, but who I never thought my parents really liked, so I stopped hanging out with her when we went to different grade schools.
And then I remembered Stephanie and "the other" Jill--their parents were in Welcome Wagon with my parents, and so it was natural that we all hung out...but we didn't live in the same school districts, so once we started preschool, none of us hung out that much anymore...
I've been very lucky to have some very good friends in my life; those were the first, and I have a lot of happy memories.
I met one of my best friends in girl scouts. I always thought she was weird, so we never talked to each other. I'm not exactly sure how this happened and all, but I think we were paired to do some activity together, and we clicked. We've been friends ever since.
I met another one of my best friends when we were three and our local library had 'story hour.' We pretty much stayed friends since then (11 years).
I've met my other best friends through other friends and school and everything, but nothing really special where I remember thinking something from before we were friends and then totally changing my mind.
I have 3 bestfriends I have known forever. Two I grew up with since birth and one I met when I was twelve. The two I grew up with are brother and sister, we don't see each other or even talk to each other anywhere as much as we used to since we all moved in different directions. Megan and I aren't as close as we used to be and I find it sometimes strange to talk to her, she has a baby and a fiance` and everytime I don't ask how either one of them is doing right away she gets testy. lol. Her brother Chris and I are still comfortable and able to talk to each other without the awkwardness everytime we happen to get the chance to hang ouy. He too has kids and a girlfriend but he doesn't get annoied if I don't asked right off the bat how either of them are doing. And unlike with Megan, we can just sit down in silence when the conversations run out and not feel weird about it.
My new b.f.f. LeAnne and I have known each other for 11 years. We met at church, she dated my brother Bill. And whenever she wanted to break up with him {lol, she did this a few times} she'd ask me how she should go about doing it. Talk about awkward moments. Well, they got married and we started seeing more of each other, we are both shy when it comes to going near big crowds and tended to stick beside each other to keep each other company. Still do.
But, even though Megan and I aren't as close like I am with Chris and LeAnne we have been through too much to just write eachother out of our lives. :)
I met my oldest best friend when we were still in elementary school. We always were in the same class and always hang out during recess and lunch. After elementary school, we went to different highschools because we lived on different sides of the school district lines even though it was like a 15 minute walk to each others house. Even though we still managed to loose contact with each other. It wasnt until college that we met up again. We went to the same college and one time we were on the same bus going home and we recognized each other. We were like "hi, I know you" and we exchanged numbers and have been close friends ever since.
We were lab partners in science class!
Me and my best friend became friends in grade 10 science we had the worst teacher ever and connected over are horrible grades and helped each out :)
My BFF and I met through church. I had other BFFs,but she was the only one I was allowed to hang out with because she was of the same religion (my family's weird rule). That's not to say we didn't get into trouble, though. In fact, around the age of 17, her parents told her she wasn't allowed to see me anymore. I was a bad influence.
We swore it wouldn't let it affect our friendship, but unfortunately, it did. We grew apart. She stayed with the religion and I did not.
Every few years I hear from her, and we catch up, but we really don't have much in common anymore.
Best friend is so hard to define, I have several super close friends that I could define as best so I guess I'll just have to pick one and go with it. My best friend from college and I met at college orientation. We had the same major, took classes together, and had a lot of similar interests. The funny thing is that at first I didn't think I'd like her, now I love her and can't imagine not knowing her.
I met my best friend because wee where in the same class. After primary school I never heard of her again unfortunately.
I met my childhood bestie in Grade One, but we basically lost touch after she moved away in Grade Five. She recently transferred to my high school but we've both changed so much that it never gets past a polite sentence or two.
On a happier note, I've had this sworn enemy since Kindergarten, but when she transferred to my junior high years ago we became super close. She's now one of my Best Friends :)
~Aliya
I got "paired up" with my first best friend. Our older sisters were almost inseparable, so when my friend and I was born only 2 months apart we were destined to hang out too! Sadly their family moved, we hung out a lot after that, but longer and longer time passed by between the times. No we barely speak to each other.
My best friend and I met when we were both editors on our college newspaper. There is nothing like laying out a paper til 5 a.m. to bond people.
sports[dot]erikalynn[at]gmail[dot]com
I met my bff in school. we were sitting with different people but by chance we got put together. once we got together we were inseperable.
I don't remember how we got started but i had two 'bestest best' friends
one was a girl. one was a boy.
with the girl we kinda seperated cause i went to a new school suddenly in 4th grade. but the boy, we met up in 7th grade and it was like nothing ever happened.
I think me and the boy have been best friends since pre-K and now we're going into eighth grade! for Almost or more than 10 years!!!
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