Dear Friend,

Do you remember the sleepovers where we would lie awake at night dreaming of what we were going to be? We stayed up all night watching movies and painting our nails. Around three in the morning, we would always tip toe into the kitchen to snatch some food, only to create a huge ruckus when we dropped something and started to laugh. Our parents were never amused, but it didn’t matter because we always had the best sleepovers.

And who could forget the countless hours that we spent talking on the phone together about everything and yet nothing all at the same time. We were the perfect pair, literally. We had matching clothes, and we wore them on the same day to school. We planned our outfits out daily, and even when we didn’t, we still accidentally wore the same thing anyway. We spent summers at the pool together, and we never passed up sled riding in the winter. I talked you into singing with me in our awful elementary school plays, and you were able to get me outside to play kickball more often. We were complete opposites, but when they saw one, the other always followed. We were best friends, but time changed us.

I couldn’t figure out what had happened between us. It seemed like we had already gotten through the hard parts. Our own bodies went through transformations, and we went from being girls to young women. We both had to lose a little part of each other to boyfriends. We fought, but we always made up. We made new friends, but always kept each other. Where did we go wrong?

We were young and naïve to believe that it would be that easy, that life would not get in the way of our dynamic duo. I never thought it would, but as the years went on, I saw us slowly draw apart from one another until nothing but the past existed between us.

High school can be brutal, and it took its toll on our friendship. Our interests started to change, and while you were at band, I was alone. While I was at dance, you were alone. Our conversations started to become forced, and I no longer believed the same things as you. We were not open with each other anymore, and our ideas of faith dramatically changed. After a while, we would fight, and not work it out. We made new friends and forgot about one another.

I don’t know when we spoke last, but it wouldn’t matter if I did because it probably was not a pleasant interaction. That’s okay though because I know that you are out there living your life. You are being the person that you want to be while I’m am being myself as well. We took different paths, but that does not mean that I am not still rooting for you. I wish for your success and happiness. I hope that you still lie awake at night thinking about all you can be, even if it is not the same as what we dreamed all those years ago. I expect that your dream now is better anyway.

I sometimes wonder what could have been, but thinking that way is just lost time. As eight year olds, we would have never seen ourselves this way, but this is reality and how it ended. So all I can say is thank you for being my friend even if it didn’t last.