Best Friend Day

Today is Best Friend Day, so I am going to write about my best friend.  Crystal is my best friend, other than my husband.  As I mentioned yesterday, Crystal doesn’t go online much, so she doesn’t know about this post.  I take full responsibility.  She’s not someone seeking recognition for being a truly wonderful friend, though I think she definitely deserves a little recognition.

Crystal and I have been friends for almost twelve years, and she has been my best friend for about eleven of those years.  I first met Crystal through my younger sister, and we didn’t get along especially well.  She was afraid of me; it was during my unhappy, Goth, write lots of bad poetry, be angry at the world teenage phase.  I didn’t especially care for her because she seemed too loud, hyper, and cheerful.  Then we met up again a few years later and started to actually speak to one another.  Somewhere along the way she became my very best friend.

Neither one of us can really say how or when it happened.  By all appearances we shouldn’t be friends at all, let alone best friends.  We are so opposite in so many ways; Crystal is never late, I am always late, Crystal can strike up a conversation with a total stranger and enjoy it, the very thought leaves me shaking, Crystal will almost always walk away from confrontation, I almost never will, and the list goes on and on. Yet somehow we work.  I think maybe we both see things we’d like to be in the other person.  And having someone who is your total opposite give you opinions and advice can turn out to be a very good thing sometimes. 

I know I can count on Crystal for anything at anytime.  She has been there for me when no one else has.  She has seen me at my worst and helped me get through it.  She has seen me at my best and has shared my happiness.  She has helped me move, which I believe is the ultimate test of a true friend, many, many times.  We have had some crazy times together, we’ve had a lot of fun together, and we’ve gotten through some tough times together. 

Crystal also gets along extremely well with my husband and with the rest of my family.  I think that’s important in a friendship.  It certainly makes life easier when the people you love get along well with each other.  

On Best Friend Day I realize that I am truly privileged to have Crystal, the only other person with a key to our house, the person who did my wedding makeup, the person who has listened to me at 2:00 in the morning, the person who has helped me with some very odd projects, the person who helped us re-arrange all of the chairs before our wedding, the person who can always smooth out a difficult situation, and so much more as my best friend.    

So what about you; who is your best friend?  What makes them the best?