About a year ago, my roommate said to me, "You're such a relationship person." I interpreted her statement as, "You always have to have a boyfriend." Sure enough, I was wrong. The more I thought about what she said, the more I understood what she meant.

I'm a relationship person in a sense that if you're in my life, you're staying. I have had the same two best friends for over ten years, and I have kept the same friends throughout high school and college. Sure, I have encountered my fair share of social climbers and I let them come and go. I never considered them a loss, rather that they were never my friends, to begin with.

As far as my romantic relationships, I was never one to get a new boyfriend every few months. I kept the same boyfriend for three years, and seldom dated after. I'm not the type of person who can just go on a date with someone and never talk to them again. It's not that I want a relationship with them, rather a friendship. I can't just ghost someone, and neither should you.

In our culture apps like Tinder and OkCupid are very popular. We use the term "ghost" a lot. Out of nowhere, we just stop talking to people out of nowhere. One may argue, "You don't owe them an explanation." You don't owe them anything, but you should at least have the decency to make your intentions clear.

If you no longer wish to communicate with the person you're "talking to" tell them. A simple, "Hey, I think it's better that we don't talk anymore," is a lot more respectful than ignoring them. When you're "talking" to someone, you're usually talking to them every day. When you abruptly stop talking to them, you're more than likely leaving them with a lot of questions and a bruised ego.

Ghosting isn't a purely romantic concept. You can ghost your friends, acquaintances, significant other, or family members. Should you? No. In every situation, you need to be direct. An explanation is so much more wholesome than giving someone one-word answers or ignoring them all together. If you find yourself commonly ignoring people or getting short with them, try talking to them. As a generation, we don't value relationships the way we should, yet we all complain about a lack of communication and stability.

Make your intentions clear in every relationship you have, whether it's platonic or romantic. You cannot expect to have your feelings taken seriously if you can't do the same for others.