In elementary school, we think the person we hang out with more than others is our best friend. For some of us, that may have been someone you sat with at lunch every day. It may have been a group of people you played with during recess every day. Maybe everyone was your best friend. At that young age, very few of us realized that a best friend was much more, but we never needed a best friend at that time. All we needed was someone to recognize us each day and to indulge us with the same amount of friendship we would shower them with.

Nothing is ever set in stone. Most of the time, the only thing keeping best friends together is the fact that they go to the same school or see each other all of the time. Before I even reached first grade, I moved from all the way up North, Washington state, to the depths of H-E-double-hockey-sticks (that's slang for Texas heat). When I was in third grade, my best friend moved to Alabama. And again in sixth grade, my best friend moved to Arizona. And honestly, the list goes on (and I'm only in 10th grade now)!

So, to the ones that got away, I bid you farewell. For the three-millionth time. You were great, I was fabulous, and life was easy around you. My troubles seemed so far off when we played with our dolls together, talked about boys, or swapped recipes with each other! Some of my best memories were with you, and some of my darkest hours were spent in your backyard or the room you shared with your little sister. You turned me into the "Mom" friend and taught me how to draw a horse. My mom still catches herself asking why you haven't been over in awhile.

You filled a crack in my life when you were here, in my life- my inner circle. And even though you created a void when you left, I picked up what I had left from you and found a way to say "she was my best friend during this time of my life, and that's when I needed her most."

Yes, we fought. Maybe we couldn't go ten minutes without arguing, but did that really matter at the end of the day when we were pouring gummy worms into our popcorn and agreeing it was a terrible idea? Don't you remember when we stopped playing freeze tag at recess and only wanted to talk? Sometimes one of us would be reluctant to miss an epic battle of boys vs. girls, but it was fine. That's what best friends are for, right?

I still think of you. I catch little things that I say and do and realize they came from you. You are the one that got away. Your dad got a new job in another state, your family decided to be overseas missionaries, you stopped coming to the same school, I stopped coming to church. The circumstances that allowed us to meet and grow in friendship have changed and there was nothing we could do.

I lost my best friend so many times, for such small reasons sometimes. But then I would find a new one, and it wouldn't be the same. She wouldn't share popcorn with me or want to talk about the future like you did, but she baked cookies from scratch with a pound of cinnamon and sugar in them and watched movies with me. She taught me new ideas that I could never have discovered with you. And that's ok. You may be the one that got away, but you left for a reason and I am still so thankful for being in your life. And if you hadn't left, I may never have had a chance being friends with the others.