Finding the dates your relationship started or how long you’ve been together with someone can feel like catching a fleeting memory. Especially a beautiful relationship that makes you feel like you’ve always been together and loved each other.
Now you might want to celebrate your anniversary, but you can barely tell the exact year the relationship started. We’re here to help.
We’ll give you some tips on how to remember the year your relationship started and you can use the ‘How Long Have I Known My Best Friend Calculator’ to find out the number of years you’ve been together.
But before then, let’s briefly talk about how the ‘How Long Have I Known My Best Friend Calculator’ works.
How Long Have I Known My Best Friend Calculator – How it works
This calculator simply allows you to input the date your friendship started and it counts upward till this current year 2024.
We know you may not remember the actual year your relationship started in the first place, which is why we have included some tips below. Try them out and when you get a date that is close enough, come back to the calculator.
1. Recall the Circumstances and Location of your Initial Meeting
These can help you trigger the memory of the time your friendship started. If the places had some history or information documented, this can be of help to you. Especially if the location is a business that has a website. Most business websites have a timeline of their existence, either on a history page or an about page. This can be a guide for you.
For example, a museum, coffee shops, amusement parks, and Cinemas all usually have websites. It is likely that you even visited when they were just starting and the start year of the company will be when your friendship with your best friend started.
If you probably first bonded over a shared love for art at a local gallery’s opening event. The gallery’s website might have archived that inaugural exhibition, pinpointing the year your friendship began.
It could also be that you both stumbled upon a fledgling bookstore during your early days of friendship. The bookstore’s website might house precious information about its birth year, revealing your friendship’s inception.
If they don’t have a website, they should have magazines or newsletters that detail that.
Achievement and experience are the building blocks of bonds. Did you accomplish feats together? If yes, hunt for those academic achievements online, like that time you aced a class project. Even shared events like attending music festivals could leave digital traces.
You can check events ticketing and listing sites to see if they have a history of events they have listed in the past. If you both tackled a community service project early on, the local event listing website might have a record, hinting at the year your companionship took root.
The events could as well be family get-togethers. Anyone else that was present during the event can help you out. Just make sure that the event happened at the early stage of your friendship so you can have a close estimate.
Did you camp together, had some hangouts, etc? All of these can help you in recalling the dates.
3. Revisit your First Photos & Videos
A picture is worth a thousand words, but sometimes, it’s also worth a precise date.
Photographs have a way of etching time onto them. The tangible prints often carry timestamps, while digital ones might retain the digital imprints. Dust off those old photo albums and flip through them. Do you remember that nostalgic vacation photo? That could be your time capsule.
The beach getaway you embarked on years ago might lie in your photo album. The timestamp on those pictures could be your compass.
Even the digital ones do have some time stamps. This can be an easy trigger to the dates your friendship began.
Watch videos that you took together in those early moments and see if some dates were captured.
4. Old Conversations
Written words can become markers of the past. Letters exchanged and emails written may contain precious details. Emails especially hold the power of timestamps. Dive into your digital archives and uncover conversations that may have the answer.
Scroll through old emails and unearth that very first email thread. The date of that first digital exchange might just solve the puzzle.
Can you remember some gifts you exchanged in the early days? Did you have any receipts from purchasing such gifts? Such a receipt will be a perfect clue for you.
For instance, that vintage vinyl record you gifted him/her could have been released in a specific year, giving you a hint about when your friendship began.
Checking the history of the product can also help. Were the gifts produced in a year and discontinued after that? Do they have different versions released in different years? All these can point you in the right direction.
6. Your Mutual Friends
Often, our best friends share common circles. These shared acquaintances might just hold the key. Reach out to your mutual friends and tap into their memory banks. They might have a vivid recollection of when the bond between you and your best friend was first forged
For instance, your mutual friend might vividly remember introducing you both at a summer barbecue, helping you piece together that initial connection.
7. Schooling
Did your friendship evolve in school corridors? Check old yearbooks, certificates, or exam results. These records of the past can be a treasure trove of information. And if not, your alumni network might have the answer.
If you became best friends during college, your yearbooks or event programs might unveil the long-lost year.
8. Parents, Family Members & Neighbours
Sometimes, our loved ones hold the key to unlocking those distant memories. Parents, in particular, can be unwitting guardians of crucial dates. That family gathering you attended might align with the time you started bonding with your best friend.
Your mom might remember the day your best friend first came over to your house, or she might recall an event that happened around the same time.
Did we help you Remember how long you’ve been together with your Bestie?
If yes, we will be happy to know that.
We hope that your friendship or relationship blossoms more beautifully as you share many happy memories together.