Again I’m participating in Kerri Sackville’s blogging challenge involving a #MyFirst theme each week. This week’s was a bit of a no-brainer for me fortunately – unlike last week’s My First Kiss debacle in which I publicly admitted to having whored myself out to anyone who’d have me. (Well, as one does at 13 years of age when confronted with a kissing booth!) 😉

As it happens, I really had no say when it came to my first best friend. It was a bit like having a sister you were expected to play with day in and day out. Fortunately however, my bestie and I got along well and remained very close until way into adulthood.

Born 2-3 months before me, my best friend Miss M* was also my neighbour. My parents moved into our house not long after my older brother was born and Miss M’s family arrived after that. By the time I came along I had a ready-made best friend living right next door.

As a result Miss M and I saw each other rain, hail or shine EVERY SINGLE DAY (unless one of us was on holidays which wasn’t THAT often) for just over 17 years. We had our rituals – I’d go next door with my bike before school and wait (im)patiently while Miss M finished her breakfast so we could ride to school together (she was a dawdler!). We generally also rode home together after school though were rarely in the same ‘form’ class. We played together after school. We went to Jazz Ballet classes together, played basketball together and we remained in the same social group throughout our entire school life.

Naturally as we got older we had our own interests. Miss M lost interest in basketball and played hockey while I played some netball as well.

Our personalities were really quite different but our lives were essentially intertwined. Almost all of my childhood memories involve Miss M. Between the two of us we felt like we could do anything and occasionally we tried. I’ve shared a couple of our exploits before.

By the time we’d gotten to high school we’d staged backyard shows for our friends; we’d jointly written a book; we’d attempted to sell lemonade to neighbours; we’d tried to build rockets and parachutes out of a large tarpaulin; and we’d tried to make an intercom system to speak to each other from our bedrooms! (Note to other youngsters: toilet rolls, waxed paper and string when combined do NOT an intercom make!)

And more importantly we’d sat around day after day talking and sharing our innermost thoughts, fears and dreams.

As we were attending different Universities in Brisbane we went our separate ways not long after our 17th birthdays, but undertook epic bus trips across town to visit each other. The closeness remained for many many years and I flew home from Africa in 1996 to be a bridesmaid when she married.

We’ve lived in different parts of the state and world now for almost 15 years so don’t see a lot of each other and are only in intermittent contact. Her mother still lives next to mine however so we probably both know exactly what the other is up to at any one point in time. But – like it is with so many of my school friends with whom I have a long long history – when we see each other we start where we last left off. Our shared childhood is a bond which ties us together forever.

Are you still in contact with your first best friend? 
What about other friends from school?

* Name changed to protect her innocence. Plus I’d meant to contact her to tell her I was writing this and… forgot!