📙 Part 2: Describe your favorite childhood friend

This episode's vocabulary

To single out (phrasal verb) – to choose one person or thing from a group. → It’s hard to single out just one friend as my favorite.

To come to mind (phrase) – to suddenly remember or think of something. → The first person that comes to mind is my old friend, Maddie.

To click with someone (phrasal verb) – to immediately like someone and become friendly. → We didn't really click with each other until we were older.

Disregard for authority (noun phrase) – the act of not caring about rules or the people in charge. → We had a healthy disregard for authority, which our teachers didn’t appreciate.

To bump into someone (phrasal verb) – to meet someone you know unexpectedly. → We bumped into each other numerous times before we became friends.

To get on like a house on fire (idiom) – to quickly become very good friends. → From the moment we met at that party, we got on like a house on fire.

Inseparable (adjective) – describing people who are very good friends and spend a lot of time together. → For the next several years, we were inseparable.

To hang out (phrasal verb) – to spend a lot of time in a place or with someone. → Most of the time we were just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

Never came to pass (idiom) – did not happen. → A lot of the things we talked about never came to pass.

A rough time (noun phrase) – a difficult period in life. → We both had a bit of a rough time growing up.

To bond over something (verb phrase) – to form a close relationship with someone through a shared interest or experience. → We bonded over our shared trauma.

Loyal (adjective) – always giving help and encouragement to someone. → She was a clever, loyal, and great friend.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe your favorite childhood friend. You should say who he or she is, where you met each other, what you often did together, and explain what made you like them. Rory, give us your story.

Rory: See, this is hard because I had loads of friends when I was younger and I don't really want to single one out as my favorite one ever. But I suppose if I absolutely have to, then the one that immediately comes to mind is Madeline, or Maddie, as I called her. That was her nickname. Who I was friends with for a lot of my high school years. Speaking about exactly who she is, well, we moved in the same friendship circles in primary school, but we never really clicked with each other until we were older and discovered we had the same sense of humor and comedic timing. Along with a very healthy disregard for authority, which I'm sure our teachers were just thrilled about. If we consider where we met exactly, well, we bumped into each other numerous times over the years, but only really became friends when we were at a party together when we were older kids. I don't really remember much of the party itself, but I do recall that we got on like a house on fire, and we were inseparable for the next several years. When I think about what we did, most of the time it was just hanging out and enjoying each other's company and sharing stories about our lives. Oh, not only that, but we would also sometimes go shopping together or share ideas for homework, which was quite handy. And we'd talk about our future life plans as well. We thought we knew it all, like a lot of kids, but obviously there was a bit of a gap between theory and practice there, or at least experience and actually doing things. A lot of the things we talked about never came to pass. But we didn't know that at the time. How could we? As far as why I liked her is concerned, I think it was mostly a case of our shared humor, like I said. But it might also have been because we both had a bit of a rough time growing up and we bonded over our shared trauma or something like that. Regardless of the reasons why, I'm very glad to have had her in my life. She was a clever, loyal, and a great friend, and a good laugh as well.