Every friendship will have it's good times and bad times. Anyone who has ever had a good friend knows this to be true. If you are one of the lucky ones like me, you'll go your entire friendship without a single fight. I met my best friend in Kindergarten, but our friendship didn't really start until around the first grade. She and I were inseparable, we did everything together. Countless sleepovers, spending hours in the creek and the woods behind my house. We created a new language, stayed up all night during sleepover and wore matching costumes during Halloween. Countless pictures told stories of countless memories. I even thought that she would one day have to fight with my little sister over which one of them would be my Maid of Honor in my wedding. However, all good things come to an end and last year our friendship ended.

I cannot place the exact time when I felt that our friendship was slipping away. We texted each other less, hung out less and little by little we started to loose touch. I caught up with her some time senior year and that's when I saw things in her that I never thought that I would see. She had changed a lot. High school has a way of changing people, so for the better and some for the worse. Regardless of everything that I saw, I thought that I could save our friendship and I was determined to try. I hung out with her every chance that I got and spend many nights wondering just what went wrong. Whenever I talked to her, it felt as if I was talking to a stranger. A few months passed and nothing had gotten better.

Somewhere on the internet, I saw a quote that said “Sometimes holding on causes more pain that letting go”. I knew what I had to do. A couple of months ago, I let go of my best friend of 12 years.

After a few months of frustration and heartache, I realized that it was ok to let our friendship die.

Sometimes growing up means growing apart.

We both took on new interests and really started to discover who we are. Our interests no longer coincided the way that they used to and we had completely different priorities in life. I've grown a lot as a person because I've been exposed to new experiences.

We are now able to find out exactly who we are.

After spending an extended period of time with someone, you know them pretty well and they know you pretty well. But how well do you really know yourself? Stepping back, I believe that we both learned a lot about who we are as individuals and who we hope to become.

We are now able to be exactly who we are.

She had to change who she was when I was around and I had to cling to my identity when I was around her. These encounters extremely uncomfortable and awkward for both of us. You should never have to change who you are to hang out with someone.

I learned a lot about myself when we were apart.

Sometimes when you spend a lot of time with one person, you forget some of your distinguishing factors of your personality. When I spent time with other people, they would notice some of the quirks that make me who I am.

Everyone needs to branch out.

I’ve met some awesome people along the years with my bestie by my side, but I met even more people when I was able to let her go. This is not to say that you must lose one friend to meet more friends just that I learned how to make friends on my own.

I was blessed with a 12-year-friendship that I won’t soon forget. She taught me a lot and I will never forget or regret a single stupid thing that we did together. Even though our friendship is over, I’ll always love and care about her. I look at our pictures and smile and be grateful for our time together. It's time for our next adventure.