What does it mean to be “best friends” with somebody? Does it mean you hang out with them all the time, tell them everything about yourself, and share all your experiences with each other? Does it mean you have some kidn of connection with them, deeper than what others can usually comprehend?

If so, it’s hard for me to say that I’ve had a best friend for long, though many people have held this title.

I think it began in kindergarten — this is where the long line of best friends began. I forget her name, now, but I remember that she was Indian. My mom didn’t really approve, but it went on, anyways. We would hide under the bushes at recess and make that our secret house and talk to each other on our banana telephones as if we weren’t less than two feet away from each other.

First grade — Anna. My first Vietnamese friend… However, a few months after befriending her I realised that our brains just didn’t work on the same level. Middle of first grade — Alice. This one’s an interesting one, because I don’t even think she ever knew that she was my best friend. She was very popular (and much taller than me), and she is probably one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. I havent seen her since middle school.

In third grade my best friend’s name was Cindy. That is, until I punched her in the stomach and she had to go to the hospital. — Hey, she squished my ladybug house, what would YOU have done?

Fourth grade was strange, because I befriended somebody who had only recently come to America. When we first met, she didn’t even speak any English. Her name was Amy. She was strangly wizened for a fourth grader, which made me sad many times. I guess that’s what happens when you live in impoverished conditions for so long. I remember she made me cry.

Sometime in middle school I met Carolyn, a neighbor who ended becoming my closest friend in high school… Though we never called each other ‘best friends’. We went everywhere together, liked the same things, we even dressed alike.

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Through all this, I don’t think I really learned much about friendship until I met Kim. She became my close friend in high school. Even though we go to different schools now, we don’t share as much with each other, and we see each other only a few times a year, I still think of her as my best friend. Sure there are people that I hang out with all the time, people that I tell my problems to, but somehow I can’t forget her friendship.

What does it mean to be best friends? Does it mean you hang out all the time? Have all the same interests? Talk with each other about everything in our lives?

It seems like that’s the way it should be. But that’s not the way it is…. How come, then, does Kim still feel like my best friend?

How come every time we see each other it’s like we never left for college?

I think a best friend is more of an essence, a feeling that you get when you’re with someone that makes you feel bonded with them further than just an aquaintence, further than even a friend, but something so close it’s like having another sibling.

Yeah, like a sibling. I miss you Kim, my silly close as a sister all the way in berkeley, best friend.