After graduating in 2004, I really struggled to break out of the high school mentality of having a set group of friends to hang out with. So, when I started working at Home Depot around 2005, a guy I worked with named Nick invited me out. I was only 19 at the time, but he was a few years older. We ended up becoming very good friends, but we never really opened up to each other about anything other than girls. Fast forward a few months, and my stepmom’s mother passed away.

It was a pretty bleak time, and I really only had my family to talk to, which, of course, wasn’t the same at all. I was struggling, and my buddy Nick was drifting away as well. The day of the funeral came. Toward the end, I walked up to say my final goodbyes and saw Nick staring at me, dumbfounded. We high-fived and hugged. We found out that he’s my stepmom’s nephew, and we had both been drifting away because we didn’t have anyone to talk to about serious things (outside of family). We’ve been best friends ever since.