Ex-Best Friends
A short story on confidence and learning to be your own best friend.
I had a best friend growing up that was a textbook definition bestie. We played on the playground together — taking turns pushing each other on the tire swing and scaling the monkey bars. We went to Camp Seventeen Hills every summer. And later, we went to school dances and talked about boys constantly. My bestie had a cousin — like most besties and people do. And I always wanted to hang out with them but there came a point where they didn’t always want to hang out with me. Maybe it was due to my intense crush on said cousin, maybe not, but we started drifting apart during the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school. When this was happening, I was devastated. I remember crying one night so hard telling myself that this friendship was over and my heart was broken by it. But my mother, being the self-sufficient, self-reliant human that she is, always taught me that you need to be your own bestie.
You live with yourself every second of every day so you need to be your own best friend. What activities make you happy? Don’t waste your time relying on someone else to come through and make plans and determine your happiness. Go out and get it. Have the confidence to go to an event or class that you really like. If you want to go see a concert but don’t have anyone to go with, go and enjoy and make some new friends there if you really want! Make your own fun.
(**note: this story is part of a collection of stories on confidence)
