To my former friend,
It is strange to think that I now refer to you as my “former friend,” when I once referred to you as my best friend; we use to be so close, yet our friendship is now just a memory. While this sometimes makes my heart ache with regret and a longing to talk to you, I know that there is a reason why I now call you my “former friend” and not my “friend.” Towards the end, our friendship was one-sided: I tried to talk to you, but you seemed only to be interested in keeping our Snapchat streak alive. I realized that I wanted a friend who actually seemed interested in having me as a friend, not just as another person to send snapchats to.
It’s almost funny, looking at the state of our relationship. I used to call you my best friend. I use to get so excited at the thought of seeing you or talking to you. I used to brag about you to my other friends: how you are so talented, how you are so beautiful, how you were such a good friend. As time progressed, you seemed less invested in our friendship than you did; I tried not to mind it, because I knew that you had friends and relationships other than me, so I didn’t want to be so selfish as to hog you all to myself. You soon spent less and less time with me, even failing to keep in contact with me – outside of snapchat that is.
No relationship is perfect, friendships included. However, when a “friendship” acts more as a source of pain and frustration than a source of joy, it’s not a healthy friendship – or really a friendship at all. It was only after making other friends – real friends – that I realized that what we had was no longer friendship. True friends make time for each other. True friends don’t ignore you to make time for someone else on a regular basis. True friends don’t say things they know will hurt their friend. True friends don’t let their friends feel friendless and alone. True friends don’t do so many other things that you carelessly did to me, but I’ll keep this list short. You were no longer a friend to me and it hurt me to admit it. What hurt more was the realization that after I stopped making the effort to be your friend, you didn’t even seem to notice or even care. Your life went on without me, as if I never really held any importance to you at all.
You may not even realize that I no longer consider you a friend because I have long decided to not be as rude to you as you were to me. I have promised myself that I will be friendly towards you, so if you ever see me around I promise I will talk to you – almost as if we were still friends. However, what you may not realize is that while I have long since decided to be friendly towards you, I have also long since decided that you are not someone who I care to keep in my life anymore.
I guess there is one thing that I can thank you for, former friend. First, you showed me how to be a truly great friend. But then you gave me an example of exactly how not to act toward someone you truly value and care about. You showed me how to be a truly awful friend – one which I promise I will never become.
Sincerely,
Your former friend
