Friendship- a 10 letter word with endless amounts of meaning behind it. The driving force to every good laugh, and the cure to any bad day.

I have learned a lot from the friendships I have experienced ever since I was a little girl. I have learned how a good hug is better than any medicine; how being able to trust someone with your deepest secrets is the best feeling in the world; what it feels like to have someone in your life who will have your back even when they know you are wrong; how a little healthy competition can make you a better person; and how amazing it is to share a bond with someone who is just like you, but also so different at the same time.

However, the most important lesson I have learned from friendship is something that people fail to remember about it- that not all friendships are meant to be forever.

It's crazy how life works, right? You can build years of trust, laughter, secrets, and tears with someone and then, one day, without any warning at all that can all vanish as if it was never there to begin with. Poof. You can go from being best friends to strangers.

I know you're probably thinking, "Wow, you must have some really bad friends if the most important thing you have learned from friendship is that friendships end!"

Well, the truth is I actually have some really great friends. I may not have many, but the ones I do have I appreciate with all my heart, because I know how fragile friendship can be. In order to have good friends, you have to let the shitty ones go.

This is never really easy, and sometimes it takes a lot to be able to drop a friend (or even a whole group), but the day you decide to do that you are one step closer to surrounding yourself with the people who are meant to be in your life- the people who will better you on the path your life is on now. This does not mean that your old friends were a waste of time, it simply means that they were there during a period of your life when you needed them and now you no longer do.

So be thankful for all of the people that have come and gone, the ones who have done you wrong, the ones you have pissed you off, lost your trust, and stabbed you in the back. Why? Because without them you wouldn't know what qualities you want in a good friend, and what qualities it takes to be a good friend back.

And, most importantly, be thankful for the ones who are there for you now. Whether they have been there from the beginning and stuck with you through it all, or they just came into your life yesterday but it feels like they have been there from the start, remember how fragile a good friend really is and never cease to be a good friend back.