I remember in middle school, one of my teachers told me that no friendships last outside of high school. I remember him saying that and being so mad and thinking how that wouldn't be me. I had a good group of friends that transitioned to high school with each other. I knew these friendships would last for a long time. Well, it actually turns out I was wrong.

After high school, I still talked with a few of my closest friends from high school, even though it was often hard because I went away for school. Though, I'm very grateful for my decision to leave my home town because it taught me that there are better people out there. My college experience allowed me to start thinking about some friendships that I had in my life that were not good for me and that I didn't have to put up with them just because I felt like I had to.

I had a friend that I've known since fifth grade and we didn't become really close until high school, we will call her Candace for the sake of the story. That's when we became really good friends and I felt like I really belonged to a group, but things didn't stay that way.

At the lunch table she would mock me and make fun of me. She asked me to buy her clothes when I didn't have a job. In our art classes she would claim a photograph that I took as her own. When I was being rewarded at an art show for a different photograph, instead of being happy for me, she said "I took a similar photo to that, but I didn't edit mine as much".

Of course, all these things devastated me and made me feel horrible, but I had no voice to confront her with. I just continued to keep quiet and remain friends; I didn't want to start any drama.

We stayed friends throughout my three years of college. She had gotten so much better since high school, she no longer made fun of me, she understood my boundaries, and things were looking up. Yet, much like what happened in high school, things started to turn bad again.

She was completely greedy with money and expected you to pay for everything and not pay for anything in return. If you missed her call and didn't respond in 40 minutes she'll call you 15 times, message you on every form of social media and not only DM you, but @ you. She would never be excited for you if you got any sort of opportunity or internship, she'd just be filled with jealousy and say things like "I wish I got an opportunity like that" and make you feel bad for the work you did. Then when you try to help her out with opportunities and things she would claim she had too much to do when she wasn't working or in school.

She was selfish and expected everything from you while giving nothing in return. If you said anything about her behavior, she will get infuriated and play the victim.

I started to think, why do I put up with this? Why do I constantly deal with 'friends' that don't really care about me. The truth is Candace isn't the only person like this in my life. I've had other friendships where I've been manipulated, mocked, and made to feel horrible because of their own problems. I've put up with it for years, and I'm so tired of it.

I dropped a different bad friend last year and at first I felt devastated because it was my best friend and I felt like everything was my fault. That's because of how that friend constantly villainized me. After us not being friends for months, I got what felt like a breath of fresh air and I felt so relieved to be out of that friendship.

It felt like I was myself once again and actually got to enjoy my loving friendships.

I began to think, well if I can let go of this friend, why can I not let go of Candace? Through years of selfish behavior, why did I have such a hard time getting her out of my life. It's hard to let go of people who have been in your life for a very long time. And even though I've been talking about the bad moments, there were some very cherished memories too.

I can recognize our good, while also knowing I deserve better people in my life, and knowing that I have to let her go. I'll always have those memories with me, but I can't keep letting the bad over take and it's best that we move on from our friendship.

So, after all that teacher in middle school was right. Most often than not, you aren't going to be friends with the same people in high school. Though, I do still have a couple people from then in my life, it's good to know that it's okay that most aren't going to stay. People aren't meant to stay in the same place, whether that's a physical location or a friendship - it's good to move on to bigger and better things/people. I will no longer be putting up with toxic people in my life, and already starting this process has felt so good.