There is no pain in the world quite like missing your bestie. I've endured long-distance romantic relationships before, but there is something about being apart from your best friend that is a whole different level of universal imbalance and wrong. Your best friend is the person who knows you better than anyone, who knows your every secret, how catastrophically messy your room is and how aggressively you cuss out other drivers from behind the wheel of a car – they know it all and still choose to stick around. They're the one you can call in the middle of the night with a crisis (real or imagined), no matter how long it's been. They're the one who knows all of your embarrassing hopes and dreams and every mortifying thing you have ever done. They're your person .
But life happens. It was easy to be in touch all the time when you were in high school or college, but then you graduate and move or get new jobs, and your first few years post-graduate are so unpredictable that it's hard to make plans even a week in advance without something popping up at the last minute. When you finally do get to see your best friend again, though, the feeling is one I can only compare to the first steps I once took into Harry Potter World: Magical. Perfect. Right. And when that reunion finally happens, all of the following inevitably occur:
Extreme Anticipation
Clear the road, other drivers. When you know you're a two-hour drive away from your bestie, it feels like you're trying to rip a hole into time and space to get there as fast as possible.
Scream, Hug, Repeat
I am not a “woo” girl, except when nature requires me to be. An approximate summary of your first conversation upon locking eyes with your bestie is, “Hi hi hi HI HI HI!”
Bask In The Glow Of Each Other's Faces
"Did you get a HAIRCUT?! IS THAT A NEW DRESS? EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL AND GREAT."
Cliff's Notes Version Of Everything That Has Happened
It spills out of you like hot lava, in the incorrect order, and none of it makes much sense but you just can't help yourself because you're too excited. At this point, you're both making mental Post-It notes to flag things that need to be combed more thoroughly later, and also stammering a lot.
Sharing Of Any And All Sexcapades (Or Lack Thereof)
FINALLY, someone you know without a doubt will not judge anything that comes out of your mouth. Time to get graphic. There is no shame here.
Extreme Nostalgia
At some point shortly after reuniting, whether it's been a week or years since you've been together, you'll start remembering all the other times you shared things you were gleeful and/or slightly embarrassed about, which will inevitably lead to a nostalgia so intense that you'll think of something prolific you once did together, and feel the overwhelming need to physically grab each other by the shoulders to revel in the awesome that you once were and always will be.
Laughing Way Too Hard At Inside Jokes
SORRY, everyone in a 5-mile radius. We can't help that we're hilarious.
Actual Version Of Everything That Has Happened
A relative calm has settled over the initial hysteria, and you get into the gritty details of everything that has actually happened. Family gossip, explanation of all social media posts that went over each other's heads, sharing of all the photos in your smart phone. You might as well just rip your clothes inside out. We're getting real.
Drinking
Duh.
Making Someone Take Your Picture, Right Now
How did you not think of this before? You're together for the first time in AGES. Accost the first stranger you see, demand a photograph and immediately post to social media. (Or do what I did and take a creepy picture of your bestie from behind and post it without her knowledge.)
Dancing And/Or Terrible Singing Party
Putting on music and making an idiot of yourself is pretty much required of all bestie reunions and dancing together to "Shake it Off" for the first time was more magical than I imagine people's first dances with their spouses are at weddings.
Eating Terrible Foods
We haven't seen each other in FOREVER, so obviously calories don't count. Besides, you danced it all off, kind of.
Reaffirming Dreams And Future Plans
Now that you are so full of carbs you can't move, you can tackle the serious stuff. If it's been awhile, it is perfectly plausible that you have completely changed career paths, or started pursuing different dreams, or are going after the same ones with a completely renewed sense of purpose. But none of it was really real until this moment when you shared it with your bestie.
Wedding Planning
I don't even need to be dating someone to be Pinterest planning my entire wedding with my bestie and aggressively plotting hers. Not that there's all that much work to do since we've been talking about this forever.
Vow To Never Let This Happen Again
Ain't no mountain high enough. We can't live without each other for this long again. It's a miracle we survived the first separation at all.
Ultimate Sense of Fulfillment
That thing that's been "missing" from your life snaps back into place and you are finally a completed puzzle again. No matter what life throws at you or how long you've been apart, seeing your bestie again is like picking up a favorite book and opening right to the middle without skipping a beat.
