There comes a time in many friendships or relationships when you realize that person may not be there for the long haul. Many people assume that just because someone has been your friend since kindergarten or you have been in a relationship since high school, that it is forever. I’m here to say that is not necessarily true. Sure some of the strongest friendships are ones that develop from a young age… but those are also the ones that run their course eventually. People grow up and transform into completely new people and that is not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that change is sometimes a good thing and not everyone is meant to stay friends or stay together forever.

Some of the best lessons can be learned from letting go of someone that used to be the closest person to you. When the friendship or relationship becomes stagnant or detrimental to your own happiness or well-being, it is time to walk away. It may seem impossible because that person may have been in your life for your entire life, but sometimes that does not mean they deserve to stay there. For friendships it usually comes down to if that person has your best intentions at heart or ‘has your back’ at all times. When you get older you realize that you do not need a large amount of friends to be happy.

In fact, by the time you get out of college and into the real world you should be happy to have a handful of true friends…and that’s okay. We grow up in a society that portrays having a lot of friends as “cool” or “popular” but in reality some of the most ‘cool’ people out there are the ‘loners’ who are happy to be that way. Pertaining to relationships, people often think that once you hit a certain number of months or years that it must be forever. People start to accept the bad just because it has been “good” for so long that it must be the way it’s supposed to be. It may seem unimaginable to leave someone or let them go because your life has become too accustomed to having them there, but as the relationship begins to change you must take note if it is really meant to continue.

I do believe in the cliché that if someone is meant to be in your life it will happen eventually, but I do not believe that just because someone has always been in your life that they deserve to stay there. What is meant to be will be but what has run its course will become obvious to you. Some friendships and relationships exist for learning purposes, some are meant to change your life, and some are meant to make you stronger, but some are also meant to be left behind when the time comes. You have to throw away some old to gain a whole bunch of new that might just change everything. So when it comes to the time to walk away, you’ll know…I promise you will know.