When my best friend called to tell me she was engaged last month, I cried then joked that I couldn't wait to spend the rest of my life with her fiancé -- after all, the guy was essentially signing on to live out the rest of his days with my friend and me: her bestie of over 10 years and unofficial life partner.
While loving friendships like mine are fairly common, they're still special. There's something fated and utterly lucky about best friendship -- finding one can feel like meeting a soulmate or winning the non-genetic sibling lottery.
As Mindy Kaling described her bestie in her 2012 book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?:
Thanks to the awesome community on HuffPost Women's Facebook, I've rounded up a collection of other tight-knit best friends who've lasted over a decade and have the then-and-now photos to prove it. If there's anything to be learned from their photos and stories, it's that there's no need to explain what makes you and your bestie work -- it just is.