{"id":22749,"date":"2025-09-03T00:54:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=22749"},"modified":"2025-09-04T13:55:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:55:31","slug":"real-bffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/03\/real-bffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Real BFFS"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY JOELLEN COLLINS
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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JoEllen Collins\u2014a longtime resident of the Wood River Valley, now residing in San Francisco\u2014 is an Idaho Press Club award-winning columnist, a teacher, novelist, fabric artist, choir member and proud grandma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I would like to consider the concept behind the initials for \u201cbest friend forever\u201d an acronym surfaced through our online communications. I can picture two young girls sending messages indicating that they love their BFF. I think it\u2019s lovely, but it can narrow some aspects about friendship, especially if you live a long life with many different locations and adventures and companions.
\nI recently visited some of my dearest friends who have been with me for a variety of number of years. My longest friendship is one I began the first day of high school. Always \u201cmy best\u201d friend, she certainly has lived up to my expectations about the kind of friendship we have, full of loyalty, laughter, honor, compassion and adventure.\u00a0We are like sisters. Because of distance and time away from our relationship, we have, of course, formed other wonderful friendships.
\nRecently, I visited some very close friends and I thought about my rich relationships over a very long life with the kind of women and men I\u2019ve been privileged to know, dedicated pieces of my writing to, thought about a lot, kept in contact with, and treasured all my life. They have also been the best kind of friends (BKFs?) possible for somebody to cherish and honor today.
\nThe time that I just spent with them was way too brief, but I didn\u2019t feel my usual sense of horrible loss when departing from friends and family.\u00a0Oddly, I was joyous at my good fortune in still being able to be, even rarely, with such treasured friends. I wouldn\u2019t change any experience I\u2019ve had with any of them. I have grown and matured and become the kind of person I am today because of their incredible influences of character, intelligence, kindness and loyalty.
\nWhen I came home, I was still smiling. I hadn\u2019t wept over not being able to be with these cherished people, but instead I possessed a greater sense of what all of them have meant to me. I simply awaken each morning to the thought that I am grateful that I have aged as I have, that I\u2019m still here, and that I am fortunate to be able to do some things physically and mentally with which other people my age struggle. I treasure each day, socialize, and generally laugh and have smiles during most of my interactions. So, what I finally realized was that instead of mourning not being near the best kinds of friends one could ever encounter, I can remember how wonderful my life has been because of them. Together we have experienced ups and downs, thrills and sadnesses, but I have always had people I could count on to help me through whatever was going on or to share my joy.\u00a0As a result, my positivity and sense of being comfortable with my current experience has been formed by my BKOFs in whatever period of my life I met them. I\u2019m thankful today for every moment I have been privileged to share with so many good people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY JOELLEN COLLINS I would like to consider the concept behind the initials for \u201cbest friend forever\u201d an acronym surfaced through our online communications. I can picture two young girls sending messages indicating that they love their BFF. I think it\u2019s lovely, but it can narrow some aspects about friendship, especially if you live a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-on-lifes-terms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22750,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22749\/revisions\/22750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}