Through one of my many Pinterest binges, I came across a quote from Ally Condie’s book "Matched." The quote reads “Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that.” If that does not perfectly describe a childhood friendship, I do not know what quote could. Some best friends just are not for forever and that is perfectly okay. My childhood best friend and I never had a serious falling out but I would no longer describe her as my best friend. In fact, when I describe our relationship to my new friends, I use the term “ex-best friend.” I avoided that term for a long time because I felt that it was too harsh but recently I gave up my fight against using the term because it is accurate. We were best friends for over 10 years but we have since grown up and gone our separate ways but I cannot close our friendship with this letter.

Dear Ex-Best Friend,

I opened my Facebook app and one of those pesky Facebook memories popped up in my newsfeed. It was a picture of you and I from 4 years ago. A long list of questions ran through my mind as I smiled to myself. Why am I wearing a hot pink wing? Why do you have a cat nose and whiskers drawn with eyeliner on your face? Why are we taking pictures in the mirror in the bathroom of our elementary school cafeteria? I ask myself these questions but I really do not need the answers. We just loved to be weird and have fun together. I never would have thought that 4 years later we would have grown apart in the way that we did. It took me a long time to be okay with the saying goodbye to our best friendship. We were sure that we would be best friends forever. We were sure that we would be each other’s Maids of Honor. We were sure that we would never drift apart but we did and that is okay. I want to thank you for the memories, every stupid and reckless decision that we made growing up, thanks for the late-night sleepovers and the impromptu adventures in downtown Decatur. I will hold all of these memories close to my heart. I want you to know that even though we do not see each other or talk in the way that we used to, I will always be cheering you on. I want all the best for you in this life. I want you to be successful and to live the life that you deserve. I want you to always be your happy-go-lucky self. I want you to be able to smile at those pesky Facebook memories and always look back at our adventures with a smile and maybe a small cringe even now and then. I want you to be able to call me whenever you need anything. I will always hold our friendship close to my heart. I am blessed to have been able to grow up along side you.

Love,