Shutterstock
I met my best friend in the third grade. We bonded over our love of TLC and the rest was history. We made it through elementary school, middle school, high school and college having had only two fights. Over the years, our circle expanded and decreased quite a few times, but it the end, it was always us. According to some standards, we’re not real best friends. I don’t talk to her every day. We didn’t get a chance to see each other when she was in town for the holidays. And it’s likely that the first time she meets my fiancé will be on our wedding day. The last time I saw her in person was in November of 2014 when I flew down to Atlanta to visit her for her birthday. But when it’s all said and done, I have never had to question her loyalty and she never has to question mine.
We don’t have to see or speak to each other every day to know that we’re good. When I’m in a tight situation, she’s the one that I can call and tell the full story without leaving out embarrassing details because I’m not fearful that she’s going to judge me. And whenever she’s in a jam, I’ve got her back. I don’t get mad at her if she takes an entire day to respond to my text messages. She doesn’t get upset if I forget to call her back. We both lead pretty hectic lives, but she makes being her best friend easy.
I’m often amused when my coworkers share some of the reasons that their friends fall-out with one another. I remember one story where Friend A got upset with Friend B because she wasn’t going above and beyond to interact with Friend A’s new anti-social boyfriend during an outing. Or the story where a friend of my coworker selected several expensive activities for her friends to partake in for her birthday and then turned around and got angry when no one had enough money to cover her meal at the dinner outing. These stories literally make me tired. And honestly, if I had to maintain friendships with people who were so sensitive and required so much, I probably wouldn’t have any friends. Friends who constantly need my undivided attention and assume that we’re beefing if we don’t speak for an extended period of time exhaust me and in most cases, those friendships don’t last long. But different strokes for different folks, right?
Are your friends high-maintenance, low-maintenance or somewhere in between?
