In my senior year of high school, I lost my best friend. We disagreed on the fairness of my choice to end a friendship with another person who was our mutual friend and whom I considered to be a toxic person in my life. After a whirlwind of events, our friendship dissolved and we slowly started to drift apart. In the years after high school I would see her at the community college we both went to; we'd make eye contact, but never spoke to each other.
The phrase "Best Friends Forever!!" seemed void of meaning. We were best friends for seven years and I still remember the fun days of us playing Maple story and Neopets, drawing together, hanging out at nearby boba shops and talking about random things that interested us at the moment.
I still get sad whenever I recall those days, but I always remind myself of the good times, why our friendship ended and use it as a lesson for myself.
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.”
Making friends and losing friends. We've all gone through the process and are still going through it now. Whether it's on the playground, in class, through social media, games, friends are the greatest addition to your life.
But you can't always keep everyone in your life forever.
Your friend can leave for college for a month and when you meet up with them it's as if you're meeting a total stranger. Your friend suddenly no longer affects your life in a positive way and they begin to act a certain way that you don't agree with and find uncomfortable. Or you find that you just can't be friends with certain people anymore because there are no longer shared common interests.
And sometimes, you find that you and a friend, or a group of friends, don't talk as much anymore because each of you has moved away, everyone's busy with their own life or that talking simply slowed down and then stopped.
You could reach out again to reconnect with old friends from school or work, and some of those connections will become stronger. Conversely, some of those connections will fizzle out again after a while.
But that's okay.
“When people walk away from you, let them go. Your destiny is never tied to anyone who leaves you, and it doesn't mean they are bad people. It just means that their part in your story is over.”
People change all the time and each person's life diverges into many different paths. Sometimes those changes aren't always good and we have to let go of those who we once talked to for hours on end, hung out with at the movies or the mall and played video games with.
Though friends may leave you or you leave them, those fading bonds are still important to you in one way or another. It does, and will, hurt when you lose those connections with those friends, but those fun times will always be in your memories.
