We’ve all experienced it, losing a friendship we were completely convinced would last forever. Yeah, at the time it hurt like a punch in the gut (and it may still hurt just as much now), but there’s no reason to hate the girl that left. Now, you might think you have every reason to hate her and hope her heel breaks or eyeliner hits her cheek right as she finishes doing her make-up, you probably have every right to. But, there's something better you can do, and that's thank her. I know it’s crazy, and there’s nothing you want to do less in the world, but you should and I'll tell you why.

She taught you that you have the strength you need to stand on your own.

Losing a friend means losing the person you would drag to events you wanted to go to but didn't want to show up alone for. But, guess what? When you lost her? You learned that you can be your own person. Whether you learned this through baby steps like getting coffee alone or full on showing up to the party all by yourself, you did it.

That girl showed you that you deserve more.

Being treated a certain way, a way you’ve never been treated before (abandoned), made you realize that you shouldn't and wouldn't tolerate it. How were you supposed to know that you would never let someone steal your shoes then complain when you tried to get them back if no one has ever had the audacity to that before? She helped you learn boundaries you didn’t know you were supposed to have and now you get to enforce them

She helped you see that having 'me time' is okay.

Without having the girl you used to hang out with whenever you needed to get out of the house or just were bored out of your mind, you were more than likely stuck in your room alone. Having that time is never necessarily a bad thing. Yes, it might feel that way when it's imposed on you at first, but sometimes it is much needed. That alone time gives you space to think, watch netflix, read, do whatever it is that you didn't realize you actually, kinda needed.

She opened your eyes to the fact that moving on takes time.

Breaking up with a friend hurts a lot more than breaking up with a significant other does. That being said, the recovery time is just as long to get over the heartbreak of losing your friend. Getting over it doesn’t happen over night, it comes after looking at old pictures deciding whether to delete them or not, stalking them on social media to see if they even care that you guys had a falling out, and then getting upset over the fact that half your wardrobe is stuck in their closet. But when this is all said and done, suddenly you’ll realize you haven’t watched their snap story in 2 weeks, and haven’t gone through their favorite tweets in just as long. You come to realize that what’s done is done and you deserve a better friend.

Losing your partner-in-crime, a girl from your friend group, or a long distance BFF is painful and sometimes it feels like you can't recover but that is far from the truth. Although, it'll sometimes feel like there's a space missing in your life, it's better left unfilled by the girl who decided to leave. Sure, some time in the future you guys might run into each other and want to catch up and reminisce, but leave that decision up to fate and for now, grab your notebooks and learn the lessons that her leaving are trying to teach you.