In the course of my dating life I've had a couple of best friends I fell for. The first time I was fourteen and he reciprocated my feelings. I only felt brave enough to ask him to date me because I already knew he had feelings for me. We were very young and naive, and the relationship lasted the summer before I realized it wasn't the right relationship for me. The next few years had some ups and downs, but ten years later we are still very close friends.

The second time was more recently, when I was nineteen. He was my best friend and we fell for each other. Personally I don't believe in the idea of true love or soul mates or "The One" or any of that stuff, but this was the real thing. However, even the best relationships change, and sometimes people grow apart. We were together for four years until this summer, when we both realized there was nothing between us anymore. We are no longer friends anymore, save for on social media sites.

I regret neither of these relationships. It's an amazing thing to have a relationship with your best friend and I learned important lessons from both. Just because they ended doesn't mean they weren't worthwhile.