One-to-One Friendship

Zoe and I have been buddies since the Upper St. Clair High School Best Buddies program started two years ago. We do a lot of fun things together; we participate in the school musical, watch movies, go shopping, cook pancakes, and sing in the car as we cruise around town. Zoe always hangs out with me at school, sits with me at lunch, and welcomes me into her group of friends. Zoe is always so nice to me and loves me, even though she always embarrasses me in public with her horrible dancing! Zoe and I have so many inside jokes, and she always makes me laugh so hard I cry!

One of my favorite memories of high school is when I had the honor of being crowned Homecoming Queen at our school. I asked Zoe to escort me to the dance since she is my best friend. We got our hair and nails done, went out to dinner, and had a blast dancing the night away. All of my friends from Best Buddies were there to cheer me on when I was crowned queen!

Everyone needs a friend. Sometimes people with disabilities do not have many friends. Best Buddies teaches us not to judge each other. It’s not about how you look on the outside, it’s what’s inside your heart. Best Buddies helps us learn that everyone is special inside and out, just as special as friendship!

Imogen Snowdon
Buddy
Upper St. Clair High School Best Buddies

It’s been incredible how much the friendship between Imogen and I has grown in just two years! I remember the day of our first match party, right after the reveal when we found out that we were buddies for the first time. We were supposed to ask each other a list of questions to get to know each other. I didn’t know what to expect, but to my surprise, we had a lot of the same interests. It was a perfect match!

Imogen and I have gotten to experience so many great things together through Best Buddies. It was especially exciting to see Immy get crowned Homecoming Queen! She was so excited to dance with her peers, stay up late, and talk to all of her friends at the dance. Seeing all of our high school classmates cheer Immy on, and seeing how excited and supportive they were, made us both so happy! Immy inspires me every day to never take things too seriously and to have fun being yourself because everyone is special.

One of the many neat things about Best Buddies is that it cultivates authentic friendships by pairing people who are already interested in the same things, so they can go through life together.  Getting to see individuals with disabilities enjoy activities with their peers motivates me and makes me excited to be part of Best Buddies, an organization dedicated to working toward a future where no special effort needs to be made to recognize or include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities because it will happen naturally.

Zoe Rankin
Peer Buddy
Upper St. Clair High School Best Buddies