Remember the days when our parents would warn us how it’s unlikely that people stay friends with the exact same people all throughout high school and into college? We would look at them and laugh because we knew that it would never happen to us. For as long as we could remember we had been the closest of friends. Whether it was from times spent in school, to after school sports or hanging out on the weekends, we were inseparable. But slowly and without any warning the distance between us grew. We had begun to lose touch and all 'hellos' from you in the hallways seemed forced. I was all of a sudden no longer reaching for my phone to call you with exciting news because you had begun not to care. Your texts became empty words without meaning and soon enough encounters were just plain old awkward between us. I would see you laughing and making inside jokes with other girls at school — girls who we used to make fun of together.
But this letter isn’t to reminisce about the old friendships. It’s to thank the friends no longer in my life for showing me what true friendship is really all about and what friends I want to have by my side. I want friends who want to be there supporting me and not making condescending remarks to make themselves look better instead. I want friends who reach out to me to make plans instead of it always being one-sided. I want friends who actually like my company and don’t need other “popular” girls there just to make themselves look better to everyone else.
Looking back, I realize now that the friendship worked because I was so invested, but when I finally woke up from the daze of your materialistic ways and saw how you were never really there, the friendship broke because neither of us were there to support it. Soon after our friendship had faded away, I had blamed myself for what had happened; for not being a good enough friend for you to stick around. As time passed I realized how wrong that was of me to believe that I was the only problem in our so called friendship. With you now long gone and out of my life, I hope that you have realized the true values in friendship and don’t make the same mistakes with your new friends because a good friendship is truly something to be thankful for. And even though I don’t have you to thank for that anymore, I can thank you for helping me to open up my eyes to see who my true friends really are.
