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FOR LOVE OR PEANUT BUTTER

My Best Friend’s Betrayal By Motherhood

Kelly Shanley
Slackjaw
Published in
8 min readDec 4, 2024

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My transition from live-in bestie to long distance auntie

Me and Sara in 2010

I know this is a dating column, but really it’s about love and relationships, and while I tend to focus on romance (or lack thereof), I think that the platonic loves of my life deserve a little recognition too. I’ve been blessed with some of the best friends a girl could ask for, and while I was out there endlessly searching for a boyfriend, pulling my damn hair out and wondering why I even bothered, my girlfriends are the ones who helped me keep my sanity — even if it cost them theirs.

I’ve had many best friends in my life — childhood, college, work friends you hang out with every day of your life until one of you quits and you never see each other again and realize your whole relationship was based on working in the same restaurant. But Sara is my best friend who I had found in my twenties, as a newly single adult wandering through the world for the first time, who would all but become my life partner for the next decade.

We met doing an acting showcase at an abandoned warehouse in Burbank. Yes, Los Angeles is just as glamorous as it seems. We weren’t paired up originally, but Sara’s scene partner had to miss a performance and since I had seen them rehearse and…

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Kelly Shanley
Kelly Shanley

Written by Kelly Shanley

LA based writer/podcaster/comedian/mountain girl at heart. Outdoor lover, world traveler, loud laugher. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kelly-shanley

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