Best friends are a magical thing. This is the person who deserves you at your best, and you also trust with seeing you at your worst – like when you’re drowning in the emotional after effects of a bad break up, or after you’ve had too much to drink.

As lovely as the story about how you met your boyfriend is, nothing is more precious than how you met your best friend(s).

“I met Iffah in primary school and our moms were both parent volunteers. When our mothers got closer, naturally so did we.

The moment I knew she really was my BFF was when we were in primary five. There was a boy named Gordon who would always piss me off, and one day she slammed him against the noticeboard to stop him from doing it again.

We were 11, and it was lame, but I knew she had my back.

It’s been 12 years now. We went through puberty, bad hair, and terrible eyebrows together. She’ll probably be my best friend till we both grow old.”

“The three of us were in secondary three. We taught each other math and literature so we became friends.

The crowning moment was probably when I broke up with my boyfriend of the time. I had an emotional breakdown and decided to climb a huge metal playground. They ran down to where I was and waited it out until I was ready to leave.

We had an ‘O’ level paper in two days, and they sacrificed their time for me when they could have been studying!”

“Laura was actually my first friend in secondary one, but we only got really close a year later because we were buddies for a school trip. She’s actually quite a conservative person – extremely family oriented, academically focused – the complete opposite of me.

In secondary four I had a phase where I had started dating. Even though I’d go out with all these boys, she’d never judge me, she just accepted me for who I was, which was a surprise knowing the type of person she was.

Even now, we can hang out for hours talking, or even in comfortable silence. That’s how I knew.”

“I was 11 when I first met my best friend, Kaya. I just moved into my new house at Woodlands and she was my next door neighbor. Our mums excitedly introduced us to each other but we weren’t as eager and felt very awkward.

When we were 13, we both got into the same school and CCA, which was where we met our other best friend, Ayu.

As there was so much friendship drama, backstabbing, and gossiping in secondary school, I realised the only ones whom I could trust and rely on were these girls. We’ve been inseparable ever since.

No matter how much we’ve grown, our friendship has remained the only constant in all our lives. We remained each other’s safe spaces.”