I was thinking about article ideas when I remembered something: I have a ton of amazing friends, and I always wondered which one of them was my favorite. So I decided to make a list of my 10 favorite friends for fun. If you are one of my friends and are not on the list, don’t get upset because I have a lot of friends and this list was very difficult to make and I love all my friends in my life.
I’m going to list each friend in order from number 10 to number 1. I’m gonna say a couple of things about each friend, I’m going mention what I like the most about each friend, and I will mention a quote they said to me. Let the ranking begin.
10: Liam O’Donnell
Let’s start out the list with an old friend of mine, Liam. Liam and I have been friends since at least the 6th grade, when I remember having art class with him. I also had Liam in my 7th-grade history class, and he used to laugh at every one of my jokes. When I started high school, I signed up to do Cross Country my freshman year, and Liam was also doing Cross Country so we ran on the same team. But we really didn’t interact until my sophomore year. During my sophomore year, I started becoming really good at cross country, so I started running with Liam during practices, and he pushed me to be a better runner. One of my favorite memories of Liam was when we were racing at Derry High School and over halfway through the race I starting to slow down, I took my head and saw Liam running right next to me, I said I don’t know if I could continue the race but he just said to Focus on myself, I ended up finishing the race right behind him and got the fastest time of my season. Unfortunately, Liam quit Cross Country after Sophomore year to play baseball instead, but at least I had history class with him my junior year. What I like about Liam the most is a supportive and loyal friend who will stay with you until the end. I remember one day I went up to Liam just say hi, and after talking for a little bit, he said, “You are a great running Mike. I want you to know that.”
9: Adam Lahlou
My freshman year of track and field, I met this guy named Adam. We quickly got along and became good friends, so much so that he joined Cross Country in his senior year because of me. During practice, we would talk a lot about life, god, memories, and anything that pick out interest. After he graduated High School, he decided to become an assistant coach on the School Cross Country team, which was very exciting for me to hear because he is a cool dude to be around. My favorite memory of Adam was when we both were at a Lake party for Cross Country, we did tubing together on the lake, and it was the most fun thing I had ever done. My favorite thing about Adam is that he is a loving and caring person to everyone around him. One funny thing I remember Adam saying was after a track race, I got a medal, and Adam said, “ wow that’s impressive, I don’t have one of those.”
It was very hard picking between 8 and 3 because I have a lot of fond memories with these friends, but I eventually picked this order.
8: Jillian Ryba
When I was a sophomore on the Cross Country team, there was a new freshman girl on the team name Jillian Ryba, whom I didn’t talk to or know much about. But the beginning of my Junior year of Cross Country me and I were in a group that was supposed to put on a performance for the rest of the team, we bonded over the experience, and we started talking more. We were in a lot of the same clubs together, like Cross Country, student council, and church group, so we saw and interacted with each other a lot. My favorite memory of Jillian was when I asked her if she wanted to go to prom with me. She said yes, and we had an amazing time together. What I like most about Jillian is that she is a very social person who gets along with everyone. I remember one time I was going through some tough stuff and I texted Jillian to tell her about it, and she said, “If you ever are going through something, you can always text me, I’m here for you.”
7: Niko Kelly
When I joined the High School Cross Country team, the first two people I ever meet was these two guys named Nico and Brent. They both seem like pretty chill guys, and we used to walk during practices together instead of running. But my sophomore year of Cross Country, I became pretty good at running, so I stopped walking with them and started taking running seriously. But I still saw Niko at events like the talent show. At the beginning of my junior year, Niko gave me his number and said I could call him if I needed to talk to him. Every time I needed to talk to someone about something that was bothering me, I would call Niko because he would always know what to say. My favorite memory of Niko was when we met up to see our friend Lilly, and I got us some old Coca-Cola to drink on the way. My favorite thing about Niko is that he is an amazing speaker and can talk to anyone about anything; he is like the elder man of the group who has all the knowledge. I remember talking to Niko about how much I improved from last year, and he said, “You are the most improved person on the team, Mike.”
6: Tommy Waters
I don’t exactly remember how I met he but the beginning of my junior year, I started talking to a guy named Tommy, and I thought he was cool. And after a while, we started hanging out together and became best friends.
But one day Tommy called me and told me he was moving school because of personal reasons. I would be upset if he were moving, but I was also very busy, so I got over it quickly. My favorite memory of Tommy is when I went to watch him perform in his band, The Apparatus. What I like most about Tommy is that he is a crazy guy, and he does a lot of funny stuff. I remember one day he texted me saying, “Hey Mike, I miss you man, do you wanna hang out?”
5: Kaden Markovich
In my sophomore year of track and field, I met a guy named Kaden, and soon after, we became really good friends. The next year Kaden and I had newspaper class together, and sometimes we worked on articles together and did other fun things in that class. The same year Kaden joined Cross Country, so we ran together on the same team. We bonded together in practices and at the cross-country parties. Kaden became the brother I never had but wanted in my life. My favorite memory of Kaden is when we went up to New York State for a cross-country meet. We stayed at the same hotel with two other friends, and all of us partied for hours at the hotel. My favorite thing about Kaden is that he is the guy who always knows how to have fun and wants you to have fun too. I remember at the Cross Country banquet, Kaden was giving a space to everyone, and he said, “ One night I called Mike and invited him to a video call, he said nobody ever invited me to a video call before, that when I knew he was special.”
4: Mary Jane Brosey
One time when I went to church group I saw one of my friends with a girl I didn’t recognize, and I asked he Waco was. My friend said that was his girlfriend, Mary, but soon after that, they broke up. But at the beginning of the school year, I started to talk and became really good friends. Mary I is like the little sister that I never knew I wanted, but I am blessed to have. My favorite memory of Mary is when we went to Dave & Buster’s to play games, after that we went back to her house, and I watched her paint something. My favorite thing about Mary is that she is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet, and her fluffy hair. I remembered myself, and I was texting, and she said, “You the sweetest kid I know .”
3: Zoe Kieffer
During my freshman year, I took biology and communication class and in both of those, there was a girl named Zoe. At the time, I didn’t think much of her, but I also did the Castle Production Lab, and she was in it, too. But we didn’t become close until my junior year, almost halfway through my junior year, I became a big fan of her music, and we started talking about High school and other stuff. At the start of my senior year, we started hanging out, and today we are BFF. My favorite memory of Zoe is watching her perform her own song in the talent show and yelling when she got second place. My favorite thing about Zoe is that she has this childlike quality to her that I think is adorable. One time when I reposted her Instagram story, she texted me and said, “Your support means the world.”
The last two were very hard to pick between, but after thinking for a while, I decided who was my number one friend.
2: Gracie Paulovich
One time I want to volunteer at my high school musical food stand, I was working with this one lady who was working at the food stand to support her daughter Gracie who was a performer in the musical, I went up to her daughter and asked for a picture, little did I know that I just met one of my best friends in my life. The beginning of my junior year, we started talking and seeing each other a lot for one reason or another. After a little while, we became the best of friends, and I couldn’t wait to see you every day in School. My favorite memory of Gracie is when I was walking out of the High School after watching Gracie perform in a musical, i was about to go to my mom car until I heard Gracie call out my name and asked if I wanted to go to dinner with her and her friends, I said yes and I had one of my best nights of my life. My favorite thing about Gracie is that she is the most social person I ever met, and she pretty much gets along with everybody. I remember one time I wanted to go to snowball but I didn’t have anyone to go with, so I told one of my friends that I didn’t have a group to go with so they told Gracie about it and a hour later I get a text from Gracie and she said “hey Mike, you should come to snowball with my friends and me, we bought you a ticket.”
1: Izzy Anders
I don’t remember this, but my best friend of all time, Izzy, said we went to the same Elementary school together, so I guess that when we met. When I went into high school, I saw Izzy again. Both of us were in the Castle Production Lab, and we talked sometimes during my freshman year. During my sophomore year, I watched her perform in the High School musical, but I didn’t recognize her until I came up to her and said my name. But in my junior year, Izzy and I had an entire period together in the tech lab. The tech lab isn’t like a classroom where there is a ton of students. In the first semester, it was me, Izzy, and another student, but in the second semester, it was just Izzy and me. So we bonded in the tech lab for the entire year. We talked, I told her something that is bothering me, we laughed, we cried, and we had fun together in the tech lab. We also did things outside of the tech lab, like choir and hanging out sometimes. My favorite memory of Izzy is when she told me that she got accepted into Saint Vincent College. I was so excited that I wrote her a graduation note. My favorite thing about Izzy is that she is brutally honest about everything, and she will not hold back about anything. I remember one day me and I were in the tech lab, and I asked her why she decided to major in Early Childhood/Special Education, she said “Because of yo Mike, you made so much progress.”
That still makes me tear up to this day. Thank you so much, Izzy.
Thank you for reading my list, and I hope you enjoyed it.
