Of the people that you consider to be your close friends, how many did you meet on your own, and how many were already friends of people you know?

I met most of my good friends on my own. Often at work.

My best friend is a girl I have known for 23 years. She showed up at my desk one day and said you are new, but I talked to the teacher and he says you are nice. Ask me out.

She dumped me a year later, she said we didn’t really love each other and we should be dating people we were crazy about at our age.

I had coffee with her this morning. None of the other friends have lasted.

I think all of them I met on my own while in school at one point or another.

I only have two close friends and both I met through my ex (wives of guys he knew though work). They had already known each other for awhile (their husbands are brothers) and I’d heard of them from my ex.

They were neighbors with same age children.

I met Gage over the summer. We just started talking. No one introduced us.
I met Marissah when Jazzie brought her to church.
I met JoeyOhSoClever on my own.
I met Corey because I liked his cousin, Chandler, at the time. The only good thing that came out of knowing Chandler was meeting Corey.
I met Nick at school in grade seven, because I’m a weirdo, and I yelled random things at him until he talked to me.
Henna lived down the road, at the time, and my parents had become friends with her parents.

With the exception of the boyfriend (and his friends, which I have grown close to), most of my close friends I have met online (Fluther and IRC, for the most part).

I hate everyone who lives around me too much to befriend them.

I think I have met all my good friends on my own. Like @marinelife, most at work or through my study.

Of my four best friends from junior high / high school, I made friends with three of them on my own. The fourth was a friend of one of those people. Of my four best college friends, I met them on my own. (We were in the same dorm.) Other friends I have met on my own through work. Only one other person that I can think of is my friend through someone else. She is the wife of my husband’s best friend.