Every friendship has some sort of origin story. Some are formed instantaneously, while others take some time to get to a good place. No matter how it happened, we're grateful to have people we can call our best friends. The following people share their stories of how they met theirs, and you'll surely be able to relate to some of them:
#1 Pizza Criticisms
The day I moved into my college dorm room, a guy went through the halls rounding up everyone for a group trip to Walmart. I went with even though I didn't need anything. We stopped at Taco Bell and I was weirded out that he only got meat and cheese on his Mexican pizza. That was 24 years ago, and he lives across the country now. We still talk every day.
#2 First Impressions
My best friend was assigned the room across from me. I have a feminine name and everyone’s name had been put on their door. He thought I might be "hot" and was severely disappointed I wasn’t a girl when he met me. I told the story as the best man at his wedding. It's great to be the godfather of his son 10 years later!
#3 Dorm Buds
My best friend was my next-door neighbor in the dorms my freshman year of college. He kind of freaked me out at first because he was a football player and I've never gotten along with athletes. One thing led to another, and we became inseparable. When people mentioned one of us, the other's name wasn't far behind. Then we became roommates until he had to transfer universities. We still talk every day!
#4 Engineering Troupe
The RAs in my college rounded everyone up for some activity. I saw a friend from high school there. Turns out, she lived in the same dorm as me and was part of an engineering honors community that all lived there. Now, she’s dropped out and I’m friends with the people from her group because we’re all nerds. I was at more of those honors events with the group than she was.
#5 How Things Change
We met in elementary school and hated each other. He always tried to participate in the games my friends and I were playing, but he didn’t really get along with us very well and it usually ended in a big argument. Then, in sixth grade (when recess on the playground was no longer a thing), we sat next to each other in math class and realized we had a lot of similar interests.
Before long, we started hanging out at each other’s houses and kept finding more things we both enjoyed. Here we are years later and he’s going to be a groomsman at my wedding. I’ve always found it funny that out of all the friends I’ve had over the years, the kid I couldn’t stand on the playground outlasted almost all of them.
#6 Inside Joke
Early high school was a very awkward phase in my life. I saw her around the school and knew we'd hit it off based on things I overheard her talking about, but didn't know how to approach. One day, I walked by her while she was in front of her locker putting up books. I don't know what compelled me to do it, I still don't, but before I knew it, I just took my hand and gently pushed the back of her head forward a little bit.
When she turned around to see who the heck just grabbed her, I was already speedwalking down the hall. She did it back to me in the middle of lunch, and then we started talking. We've been friends over a decade now. It's become a long-held inside joke between us, saying that we "tagged" each other into being friends.
#7 That Awkward Phase
I remember when I went through a kind of awkward phase in high school. I could never bring myself to talk to people, but I managed to make a new friend by holding up an anime drawing I did. I didn't even really like anime that much, I just did it for the joke, but whether or not he understood that, at least we had some good times.
Pxfuel
#8 Since Kindergarten
I was in kindergarten and both of us were walking backward on the blacktop. We bumped into each other, and we both just stood there staring at each other for a few seconds. We then had the following conversation: "HI. I like dogs. Wanna be friends?" We've been friends for almost 15 years now. Little kids can make some of the best friendships in the most random ways.
#9 Friendly Shrug
I was starting a new job and the manager had me sit with this girl so she could show me the basics. She looked over at me and said, “I don’t know why they have me training you when I barely know what I’m doing.” Then she showed me her stack of gossip magazines and told me to just kill some time with those. It’s been over a decade and we’re still good friends.
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#10 Humble Beginnings
Both of our families were at the same family homeless shelter. He hung out with my sisters and me and we made a digital story on his laptop once. We got re-homed and his family stayed, and I forgot all about him. Then I saw him three years later as he was in my high school math class.
Our school has about an average of 200 to 250 people. I didn't recognize him at first, then we finally figured it out. He didn't look as nerdy as he did then. He's my daughter's godfather and my roommate now. I just graduated from college last December, so we've been friends for almost 10 years now.
#11 Bar Antics
I was at the bar with my friend, and we had three guys walk up to us throughout the night to hit on one or the other of us. We kept letting them down easy as we had boyfriends at home. This one guy saw us doing this, watching the guys come up and walk away, laughing with the people he was with about it. He got tipsier than heck, came over, and leaned up against the table, slurring out: “Hello, ladies.” My friend and I just looked at each other like, “Oh boy, here we go.” We said hello back.
This dude went: “My friends are third-wheeling me super hard, do you mind if I hang out here and see if they miss me?” He spent the next three hours talking to us, convinced me to buy the ticket to go to Japan, and the rest is history. He’s been my best friend ever since then. I don’t know what I would do without him.
#12 Without A Doubt
We both worked at a small diner. I was a waitress and he was a dishwasher. We would talk every time I brought him dirty dishes and when things were slow. It took a few months to consider him my friend, and then my best friend, but now he is without a doubt my best friend! And he asked me out, we’ve been together almost a year now and I couldn’t be happier!
#13 Instant Bros
He was a server and I was a bartender. We would always make small talk while I was making drinks for his tables and he seemed like a really cool dude. We started hanging out in the parking lot on break or after work and just chill. We added each other on Facebook after a while and I shared a Smash Bros. Melee meme, which he commented on.
Instant bro connection; he would come over once or twice a week and we would play Smash or just talk about life. We worked in three different restaurants together and built up a little friend group of people that like Smash and just keep adding people and their friends to our group. I’ve only known him for four years but we’ve been through some stuff together and I love that dude.
#14 Picture Day
It was sixth grade, picture day. I stood next to her in line and we started making small talk. I playfully accused her of having fake curls (she has the curliest hair, think Shirley Temple almost) and she said they definitely weren't fake. I don't know how it happened after that, but we became pretty good friends over the years and were 25 this year. Though in high school, she confessed to me that I almost made her cry from saying her curls were fake.
#15 Camp Buddies
At a Catholic camping festival type thing our schools were at. We were in the queue for ice cream, she taps me on the shoulder and tells me she likes my round sunglasses, and I tell her I love her skirt. We hang out for the rest of that day, find out our birthdays are a year and a day apart, exchange phone numbers, and the rest is history. I'm so lucky to have her, she's amazing! We've been friends ever since.
#16 No Boundaries
We met in high school. She was a year above me and friends with someone I befriended my first day. He introduced me to her. At first, she felt threatened by me because I was the complete opposite of her. Dark-haired, sweet, and friendly. I didn’t have any girlfriends left from middle school, and by the time freshman year rolled around I just didn’t feel like that group was a match for me anymore.
So when I joined her friend group, I was super close to everyone. She wasn’t mean to me but she was definitely suspicious and admitted to me she was jealous of the attention I got. It changed after I had gotten a boyfriend. We ended up bonding over that, a few parallel childhood traumas, some general shenanigans, and ever since we have been boundaryless.
#17 Mistaken Identity
This was at a summer base program many years ago. I got on the bus to go to the amusement park and got seated with another dude. I was the new kid and didn't have very many friends. I don't remember how it started but I started fake hitting the kid and he acted like he was getting hit. I laughed.
So after a fun day, we got back on the bus to go home. I mistook the person I had been seated with someone that looked very similar. He did do fake blows when I did fake punches. We introduced ourselves to each other. Turns out later, we figured out that I mistook him for someone else. He is not my best friend anymore, but I loved this story so much.
#18 Pen Pals
She was the girlfriend of my friend’s friend, and they both worked at a record store. She seemed really cool. We added each other on Livejournal. So we sorta got to know each other that way. She moved to a small surf town and not long after, I moved there, which made us able to hang out more. And it just went from there. I’ve known her for almost 20 years.
#19 One Word Is All It Takes
Junior high. She was loud and weird and I wanted nothing to do with her. Then one day at lunch, I saw her sitting all by herself, crying. I asked her what was wrong. She said all of her friends had decided they didn’t like her anymore and wanted nothing to do with her. So I sat and had lunch with her. 15 years later, we’re still friends, we were bridesmaids in each other’s weddings, and I was the first person besides her, her husband, and the nurses to hold her baby girl.
#20 A Dorky Duo
It was 2013 and I just transferred from a different middle school. The art teacher noticed I was sitting alone and told me to sit in his seat cause he was absent. The next day, he came back and saw that I was sitting in his seat. Both of us were intimidated by each other but we ended up bonding over being in the same dorky fandoms and messaged each other on Skype. And now we're married!
#21 Weirdos Together
I met her in tech class in junior high. It was so awkward as we were doing an assignment on a computer where you just press "yes" or "no" and all she did was just click and click and click without saying much. It was during lunchtime when I saw her not knowing where to sit. I invited her over and we actually started talking. Apparently, she heard I was a weirdo (I admit there is some truth to that) and she wasn't sure about me, but after we hung out with each we became close friends.
#22 The Little Crush
I was good friends with her boyfriend in high school. I figured she didn’t like me since I had a bit of a crush on her boyfriend and she’d never spoken to me when we all ran into each other in the hallway. I ended up going to the same college as her and being in the same program. Now she’s my best friend. Turns out, she was just shy and had no idea I had a crush on her boyfriend. We're still in college but really good friends and we often make jokes about me being in love with him.
#23 Group Project
I had two guys asked me if I wanted to work with them in teams in high school since I was new and knew basically no one. I accepted and we started hanging out at school. One day, they asked if I wanted to hang out outside of school, and it turned out we all lived at about a 30-minute walk from each other's houses. That night we hung out, and I started talking to one of the guys' sisters. She became the best friend I've ever had. Those two guys are also still some of my best buddies.
Pxfuel
#24 Fit Friends
After some illness issues, when I went back to the gym, I decided to get a personal trainer. The trainer I got set up with at my gym had just been hired, and I was literally his first client. I started working out with him. We had a lot of similar interests, so we developed a good working relationship. I wasn't gaining as much weight as I wanted, so he had me keep track of everything I ate for a few days. I emailed it to him to review, and at our next session he said to me (as a mid-20s male): "I don't know how else to say this... but you eat like a teenage girl." Been my best friend ever since.
#25 Hard Uppercut
We worked at the airport and were casual acquaintances. We would chat occasionally if we were at the same workstation. He was into fitness and did a lot of random stretching to pass the time when it was slow. I took a chance and gave him a HARD uppercut to the sack mid-stretch. After writhing in pain for a minute or two, he acknowledged he would have done the same to me. Best friends for 17 years running.
#26 The Chili Burp
I was seven years old at a bowling alley. I would go there every week. That particular week, they were showing how the machines worked to grab the pins. Everyone was fairly packed together because there were multiple families there. Well, he was in front of me. TURNED AROUND, and point-blank burped in my face. I remember it smelled like chili fries too. I was kind of mad, turned, and walked back a little. Later, I figured I should go tell him there were no hard feelings and be nice. We got to talking after that and have been best friends ever since.
#27 Business Partners
I was invited to a party by one of his friends. I had an immobilizer on my leg because I had just dislocated my knee. He asked who brought Gimpy and I told him about how I thought he had the best directions with all the landmarks. For instance, turn left you will see a huge car dealership, turn right there is a house with a red door. We hit it off, we ran with the bulls in Pamplona, have been to Vegas, San Francisco, Napa, Key West, and now we are business partners. We are more like brothers of over 20 years. My kids call him uncle.
#28 A Unique Connection
I moved in next to him when we were three. His parents brought him out to meet us, and as he was the first neighborhood kid I met and we lived so close together, we would play all the time together. He was in my kindergarten class. We would do homework together; he would make a copy of his extra, harder math work because my first-grade teacher was horrible and didn't realize I was bored out of my mind. We went to the same tennis, soccer, and church camps (even though we were different denominations). We played in the woods that separated our houses together every day during summer break. We were on the swim team together, and when we were seven he asked me to marry him. He was exactly two weeks younger than me, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss him. I have never had that kind of connection with anyone else.
#29 Fifth Grade
On my first day of fifth grade, I didn’t know anyone in my first class so I sat isolated from everyone else. Then after a while, another student came in late and my teacher says to sit by me. He gave a stupid smile and I gave one back. We knew what would come next. (By the way, this person is no longer my best friend but I don’t remember how I met my current best friend).
#30 Newspaper Club
I was in college. He was the editor of the college paper. At the end of each month, he would print two lists: “Things That Annoyed Me This Month,” and “Things That Got Me Through This Month.” One day, at the top of the “Things That Got Me Through This Month” list, was “My Transformers: The Movie Soundtrack.”
Being a lifelong Transformers fan, the soundtrack to the movie had long been my holy grail. So immediately fired off an e-mail to the school paper, asking him, “Where the heck did you get it?” He responded with “Come by the newspaper office, and I’ll give you a copy.” That led to many a late night at the newspaper, talking about cartoons of the '80s, and life, the universe, and everything. 20+ years later now, and we still talk pretty much daily.
#31 Befriending Karen
I was working as a waitress at a restaurant in a more upper-class part of Toronto so a lot of the customers were pretty snobby, but there was this one lady in particular who my co-workers and I would argue over who had to take her order. She had the ultimate Karen haircut. Once in a while, I would sit with her cause I figured she was probably just lonely.
After a while of doing so, she actually started to open up to me and started to request me as her waitress. Turns out, she was going through a pretty painful divorce where her husband had found a mistress. She recently found a new significant other and I'll be attending her wedding as a bridesmaid in about a month.
#32 Give Me A Name
I don't have one best friend, I have several. My favorite meeting story though is I had just started high school after being held back for a year, (I hated school at the time and never showed up or did homework.) I was a loner at the time so I didn't really have any friends coming in but I did meet one guy in math (Tom), we hit it off sitting in the back of the class, drawing instead of doing math.
Tom introduced me to his group of friends during lunch. That day after school I was calling my mom to pick me up. One of the guys from that lunch group was waiting near me and couldn't get ahold of his parents for a ride home so I asked my mom if she would give my friend a ride. She asked what my friend's name was.
I said, "I don't know," and she said that she wasn't going to give a ride to somebody whose name I didn't know. I turned to him asked for his name, he told me his name was "John." I said, "My friend's name is 'John', can he get a ride now?" We've been friends ever since. That was about 15 years ago.
#33 The Cardboard Binder
She sat in front of me in math class. I had a cardboard binder that was ripping off (my family was struggling financially at the time, so I never brought it up to my parents). She noticed this and began to tear the decorative tape off her notebook to keep my binder together. Up until this point, I had never even talked to her, and she did this when I wasn’t in my seat, I caught her doing it from the corner of my eye. We’ve been best friends for over three years now and she is the sweetest, most genuine person I have ever met.
#34 Big Man, Tiny Igloo
I met my best friend when I was in high school. I was actually doing my sister a favor and helped move her best friend into a new home during the wintertime. The snow was very much present and with the reflection, everything seemed way too bright. During the move I saw another classmate across the street building an igloo, so I decided to take a break from moving and say hi.
When I made it across the street it seemed that he wasn't alone and that it wasn't actually his house. A giant kid crawled out of the igloo and introduced himself. I remember telling him "big man tiny igloo," only for him to respond with "it's cozier that way."
Flashforward into the next semester: it turned out we ended up having a few classes together and would regularly ditch them to go on odd adventures here and there. We've been best pals since and it's been about seven or eight years now. Weird how things work out but I'm glad it did.
#35 In Unison
I met my best friend at a bar when I was 18. We were both standing at the bar trying to order drinks, when some guy pushed his way past both of us, almost knocking both of us on our butts. We shouted "Watch it, jerk!" in unison, then looked at each other and then just laughed (which might have been because we were both a bit more than just tipsy). We've basically been best friends ever since then, going on 17 years now.
#36 Foul-Mouthed Friend
When I was eight, two family friends came for a sleepover and brought their mutual friends with them. After we woke up and started playing video games, I didn't even notice him until he told my family friend to "shut up." I was shocked to say the least. But for some reason, his foul mouth caught my interest and we have been best friends ever since. I'm 31 now.
#37 Self-Invitation
We were standing in line waiting for the last bell in sixth grade. The teacher asked what she was going to do when she got home. She answered that she was going to swim in her pool. I immediately interrupted and asked if I could come over and swim too. Still best friends almost 20 years later despite going to different high schools and colleges.
#38 Down The Hill
When I was six or so, I lived on the top of a giant hill. The road leading to the bottom was about a mile. My parents had purchased me a big wheel and I proceeded to go down the very steep hill with no feet on the pedals. Bradley was playing in his yard near the bottom after this big curve. As I approached where he was, we connected eyes and I immediately caught the pedals and slid 30 feet or so to a sideways stop. We have been friends ever since.
#39 The Rock Club
In first grade, a kid named Rocky was on the playground at recess gathering some sizable rocks and piling them up. I asked him why he was doing that and he said it was for his “Rock Club.” He also said that if I could steal some rocks from the other rock club across the playground, there’d be a spot for me in the “real” Rock Club. It sounded pretty easy to me.
I infiltrated the other Rock Club and managed to get a couple of good rocks under my shirt. But as I was slipping away, I was caught and confronted. First I played dumb, then I became indignant and shoved the kid who confronted me for stealing his rocks. He promptly told on me, and the teacher on duty made me sit against the wall for the rest of recess.
Rocky found me against the wall and said that it was pretty cool that I shoved that kid and asked me to be in the real Rock Club. He then invited me to hang out at his house that weekend. We’ve been best friends for 20 years.
#40 Don't Judge A Book
He turned up on my building site, dressed like a stereotypical rich boy. Years down the track, that man is family to me and perhaps the most important person I've met (excluding my significant other). We've been through some rough times together, we've had some great times together, he's taught me some valuable lessons and he's the brother I never had. The MOST important thing I learned from this situation is don't judge a book by its cover.
#41 A New Conversation
In second grade I didn't know anybody at first, but I got seated at a group of kids who knew each other very well. They were having a serious conversation until I heard one of them say one's name and then the other. Soon they asked me what my name was—I said my name to them and I started a new conversation with them without even asking their names. So they were my first best friends.
#42 Just Like Yesterday
Dancing class. Where I lived, all high schoolers attended classic or Latino ballroom classes around the age of 16. I decided to sign up for an advanced class despite not having a guy to dance with, but there were more boys in the class anyway... We danced together in every class. Never exchanged numbers though, and then a couple of months later, we met again as our mutual friends were dating. That was 16 years ago. We lived in different cities for most of it, but we can still call each other at 2 a.m. and the conversation picks up like we saw each other yesterday.
#43 Small Step Of Bravery
I was waitressing at a small restaurant, serving these two girls and we got to talking. I got along with them both really well, and in the end, we said we should add each other on Facebook and go for coffee sometime. One of the girls became my very best friend! I was 19 and now we are 25. So many people ask me how I meet new people. It’s as simple as finishing up a good conversation with somebody with a “Can I grab your number” or “Let’s do a drink sometime.” That one small step of social bravery can change your life!
#44 Close Proximity
Fun story! We were going to kindergarten together; in fact, I think we even went to preschool together. She would actually bully the heck out of me. One day, we got off the bus and she took off her book bag to beat the heck out of me. But then we realized we both actually lived like... 10 feet apart from each other. So she stopped bullying me and became my friend and we've been best friends ever since.
#45 Good And Bad
We met in eighth-grade science class. I was raised very proper to always use manners, never curse, thank teachers after every class, etc. We were placed next to each other on the seating plan and every time she made a mistake on her work, she would blast out a string of curse words. Being the straight-laced kid I was, I was absolutely terrified. I remember complaining to my mom all the time about her. Eventually, as the school year progressed, we somehow discovered our mutual love of anime and drawing, and after that, we became really close. Fast forward a few years and we are nearly out of high school and thinking of buying an apartment together once this mess is over!
#46 The Bigger Jerk
High school. She was the witch sitting behind me. I couldn’t stand her and everything she did really bothered me. It was mutual. And then the teacher moved her next to me and we made it a contest who would ruin the other person’s stuff more. I cut the straps off her bag, she cut the hood off my jacket. I threw her notebook in the toilet and she put flower pot dirt in my lunch. I don’t remember when we stopped being jerks and became best friends.
#47 The Best Bag
We were in the same class in seventh grade. He seemed really cool but I was too scared to talk to him, so I bought the same bag as him so we would have something in common. Turns out, we were both really awkward and nerdy, so I could've just spoken to him anyway. We're still really good friends to this day. We're in tenth grade now but he moved schools. Regardless, we were probably one of each other's closest friends and I'm really glad I bought that bag.
#48 Anime Lovers
About 15 years ago, I entered middle school. My best friend from elementary had moved over the summer to another state and I was devastated. I sat down in my first period more than a little terrified and upset at having none of my elementary friends in any of my classes (I was AP and none of them were.) A pretty girl sitting in the middle of class surrounded by friends smiled and told me she liked my shirt it was an Inuyasha and I thought she was making fun of me, so I more or less blew her off. Here we are 15 years later we still get together when we can.
#49 Common Ground
I met her in second grade. I was getting pizza with my dad, and then her car was nearby, and she dropped her pizza spice near me. I picked it up, handed it to her, and I recognized her from yearbooks and stuff. We were in the same class in third grade, and the same lab group, so we hung out and found out we had lots in common. Been best friends with her ever since.
#50 Work Friends
I'm an introvert. She is very much not. So she'd say hi to and have a little small talk with literally everyone in the office (like a dozen people) every day she worked. I started looking forward to seeing her. She asked if I wanted to go get boba on a day off. Sure! So we went, and I realized that she wasn't just friendly, she's genuinely compassionate and kind! I took her out to breakfast the next week. Now we text just about every day.
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