Happy Friday, Dear Readers!
Here’s this week’s writing prompt:
How did you meet your closest friend? What makes that person your closest friend?
For the purpose of this exercise, let us assume that significant others and spouses are excluded. 🙂
I met my friend (and this will probably surprise no one) at kickboxing. She and I were two of only a few women who went to Sik Tai, an old-school muay thai club where the training was fairly brutal.
She was quiet, but she was still friendly and easy to talk to. I remember noticing that she had kind eyes. A person’s eyes count for a lot with me.
I can’t remember how we first struck up a conversation, but somehow we discovered that we lived on the same street, so she offered to give me a ride to class. This was a huge treat for me, because before I met her, I took two buses through some very spooky neighborhoods to get to the club. I had to wait for a long time in the dark in said scary neighborhood to catch the bus back home.
During our rides back and forth, she would often ask what my plans were for the coming weekend. One day, I just said to her, “Why…do you want to do something?”
I can’t remember what we did (probably went to Papa George’s for Greek food and hours of conversation), but from that moment, we were friends. She has been my best friend since 1997.
We’ve been through a lot together…both good and bad. Right around the time we became friends, I discovered that my boyfriend of three years had cheated on me, and she went through a divorce. We traveled to the Dominican Republic and Africa together. We supported each other through terrible relationships with terrible men. And of course, we trained together…at Sik Tai until it closed, and then at CKMTC, Dragon, Pan Am, and now at KWest. I hope we’ll continue to have adventures together, even though we’re both in serious relationships now.
She is one of the few people I can trust with my life. I can tell her anything, and she’ll never breathe a word of what I tell her to anyone else. She’s a fantastic listener, and her loyalty is unshakable. She’s selective in her choice of friends, which makes me all the more proud and grateful that she selected me.
I don’t know what it is about kickboxing, but some of the most incredible, big-hearted people I have met in my life are kick boxers. There’s something about that martial art that attracts some fantastic people.
How about you, Dear Readers? How did you meet your closest friend?
What a great tribute to our friendship! Thanks for putting a smile on my face first thing this morning 🙂
You are very welcome. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for your friendship. 🙂
I don’t have just one so I can’t pick one. I have several close friends that I would share every aspect of my life with.
One is from Highs school, actually, earlier than that but it is the friendship that has stood the test of time.
One is a friend of one of my recent post marriage boyfriends. She and I just had a very similar way of looking at the world, a love of writing, and a love of athletics. This is the one you also know.
One is someone I work with. We shared an office together for 5 years and I barely knew her and one day when my marriage was at the end I had a mini meltdown at a staff Christmas lunch and she turned to me and said, “you and I have to do drinks one day” and it has been a match made in heaven ever since.
And one I know from Triathlon and we got close mostly through facebook. She recently got married and I did her toast to the bride. The interesting thing about us is that she is very Christian and I am not and that doesn’t make us not see eye to eye in any way.
I can’t rank them or pick one that I would go to first. (I feel like I’m writing “the sisterhood of the travelling pants,” now) but they all also represent different areas of my life and really don’t know each other that well. Although most of them have at least met each other. Interesting that I just noticed this now? I wonder what that means?
And those are just the women friends. I have several male friends I hang with too.
I’d love to comment, but it would take me forever. I have three wonderful women in my life who are all very different, but who complement our friendship in the best ways possible, and who mean the world to me. I consider myself a very fortunate person.
Wonderful story Holli!!
~Lisa (blogger hates me!)
I have a small group of dear girl friends, a couple I’ve never met in person, and we mostly met on line or through my work. They are truly some of the most wonderful friends for sharing with, bitching together as well as praying with and for.
You’ve written a wonderful tribute to friendship. It is worth cultivating, and building on. I’m particularly thankful for the renewed friendships from my school years through Facebook. It has allowed some of us to really get close again and it seems the years just melt away when we are chatting.
What a beautiful tribute to your friend and to friendship as well! I have two friends that I’ve known since elementary school who have been in and out of my life over the years. We go through spells of closeness and then drift apart,but when we do see eachother, it’s a good experience. I also have a few newer friends who share common interests with me and who add a lot to my life. To be honest though, I have not had the kind of friendship you described since I was a teenager. Her name was Susan and she was my best friend for ten years until she died at the age of twenty. I wonder if we’d still be friends if she were still alive…
Thanks for your beautiful comments, everyone! I’d say this was a very successful Fun Friday.
@ Kim – You are blessed to have so many close friends. I have wonderful friends, but I’ve come to realize there is something extra special and unique about the closeness Christine and I share. Our friendship has stood the test of time, while others I felt were my “best” friends are not even in my life anymore. That made writing about her an easy choice. But yes, I agree that having friends that share different interests and aspects of your life is important.
@ Lisa – You are a very fortunate person! Thanks for your comment. Re: Blogger – make sure the “keep me signed in” box is NOT checked. I find that solves the problem.
@ MM – Thanks for your comment. I’ve longed for a close group of girlfriends, a la Sex and the City, but have never been able to find it. All my friends pretty much stand alone. I’ve had the same experience with Facebook, though…it’s wonderful to reconnect.
@ Sherry – I’m so sorry for your loss! That’s so sad. My childhood best friend passed away at seventeen, and I’ve often wondered the same thing–would we still be friends? I don’t think we ever truly get over the loss, but I’m glad you’ve been able to bond with some new people. Friendship is so important to our well-being.