Dear “Best Friend,”

They say friendships come and go, but I was certain our friendship would last forever. We became friends way back in kindergarten, and for the next 10 years after that, we managed to stay incredibly close. We remained friends all throughout grade school, and once high school came around, we were still having sleepovers on the weekends, having phone conversations that lasted for hours and hanging out together after school. Throughout the first few years of high school, we told each other everything that was going on in our lives, from boys to petty drama to our family situations, just like we always had.

But, somewhere along the way, we grew apart. I want to say it happened around junior year, but who can say for certain? All I know is that we began to hang out less, our phone conversations reverted to texts, and our sleepovers became few and far between. We even stopped updating each other on what was going on in our lives; I remember one instance where you started dating someone and didn’t tell me for months. In the prime of our friendship, I would’ve known nearly every detail about a potential relationship, let alone a confirmed one.

By the time senior year came, our communication with each other had diminished significantly. If we had a class together we talked and occasionally even joked around, but once the bell rang our friendship was severed all over again. When we passed each other in the hallways we would say “hi,” but never stop walking just to have a chat. Our sleepovers and after-school activities were done with, and our texting conversations had resorted to an occasional and unanswered “What’s up?”

At graduation, we took pictures together in our caps and gowns. We went to each other’s graduation parties, respectively, and stayed for a few hours before heading home. But as soon as high school had come to a close, so had our friendship.

I wanted to blame the loss of our friendship on boys, who in the end we spent time with more often than we did with each other. I wanted to blame it on a bad fight, but we never had one that was serious enough to end our friendship. I wanted to blame it on our first jobs taking over our schedules, but neither of us got that many hours. I didn’t want to believe that the person who knew everything about me would just drop out of my life for no good reason. But as the years have gone by, I came to realize that, sometimes, people just simply grow apart. There isn’t always a good reason or excuse for it, but it still happens nonetheless.

All in all, I’m just glad our friendship didn’t end on bad terms. We’re still friends on Facebook and other social media sites; so, even though we don’t talk anymore, at least we can “keep in touch.” Some days I miss you a lot; after all, we were friends for over half of my lifetime, but we both have new friends and entirely different lives now, which I have come to accept. So, even though we no longer have late-night phone calls or adventures around town, it’s not necessarily bad that our lives have taken paths away from each other; everything happens for a reason, after all. Just know that I will always miss your friendship, no matter where life takes us next.

Sincerely,