Jordan Washington –
Who doesn’t have a best friend, or even have multiple best friends? I know I do!
To me, a best friend is someone who is always there for you, goes that extra mile when you are in dire or ordinary situations, someone who will always have a listening ear if you need someone to talk to and vice versa, and someone who you have been through hell and back with and shared some deep life experiences with.
I recently read an article about why having a best friend makes no sense. In the article, written by Kovie Biakolo of Thought Catalog, the author states how labeling someone as a best friend can stew up jealousy, sound as if that person is in ownership of the other person, and can lead to favoritism.
I actually agreed with some thoughts of the author. I only have 3 people that I call best friends. Those people are people that I have forged a great bond with over the years and they embody everything that I mentioned above as to what qualifies a best friend. I don’t think of the people that I don’t refer to as best friends any less though. Any person that I call a friend is very dear to my heart. I never take friendship for granted because it is something that can be gone with the snap of your fingers.
I don’t ever tell people who my best friends are because I am aware that sometimes it can create unnecessary drama, like Kovie stated. Jealousy could possibly stem up and that person can feel as if their friendship is worthless to me just because I don’t refer to them as a best friend.
When you call someone your best friend, it kind of sounds like that person is your personal prized possession. Like, no one else can uphold that title besides that person because that person ‘owns’ it. That could also stem to jealousy as well. Favoritism is my least favorite word. If you openly tell people who your best friend(s) is or are, there’s no doubt in my mind that other people will automatically assume that you treat them way better than other friends. When you put that title of best friend, it means something of importance. Sometimes you may not always catch when you do, but others around you can and they feel as if they’re excluded.
We label people our best friends to consciously or unconsciously hold importance to those people that aren’t family. We do it to help better compartmentalize our lives. Everything in our lives fits under a certain category and sometimes dividing people makes us breathe easier and worry less. We have our best friends, close friends, friends, and then everyone else who we don’t know how to label. We all do it. No one is exempt. It’s okay to call people your best friends, but make sure that you aren’t doing any of the negative things to your friends who you don’t refer to as best friends. Friendship should always be valued. It doesn’t matter if that person is your best friend or not to really value them.
To all of my friends out there, thank you for being a friend.
Jordan Washington, from Olympia Fields, Illinois, is a junior majoring in English with a double minor in Music and Communications at Illinois College. Jordan is a opinions writer for The Rambler and is a member of Forte and Wind Ensemble.
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