As I start my Junior year at the College of Charleston, not only have I learned a lot academically, but personally as well. Thankfully, by this point, I’ve found my people. The people I feel a deep connection to whether we’re miles away during breaks or not. The people that always brighten my day, ground me, and genuinely get me. A tough reality that I learned fast in college, and one that quite frankly I’m still learning, is that not all friendships are lifelong. Sad, but regardless, all friendships are meaningful and we carry them forever. So, here is an open letter I wrote to those (lost) meaningful friendships.
As a growing adult, it comes as no surprise that some friendships are outgrown. This doesn’t mean that there was drama, a huge fight, or any hard feelings, the friendship has simply run its course. As my mother always reminds me, “some friendships are like stepping stones, they are there to help you through a specific time but are not meant to last forever.” I had to come to terms with this on my own a long time ago, and college has definitely solidified my mother’s wise words, especially when it comes to you.
You were everything that I needed when I needed you. You were the friend that I needed to bring me out of my shell in this crazy new place called college. We needed each other in the first part of our journey of self-discovery. We discovered the best dining options on campus, hang out spots, how to utilize the library to the max, and how to plan the perfect weekend. And among other things we discovered together, the most important was that when balancing college gets hard, you can always count on your friends to either laugh or suffer with you in the course-load.
We’ve diverged from inseparable besties to just strangers passing on the street. This was bound to happen, and I’ve made my peace with it. As much as we needed each other in the past, we also need to use what we learned from each other and branch out into the world. I still love you, you just turned out to not be one of my people, and that is okay. I’m just glad that now we’ve each found our people and our place, even if we weren’t meant to share those.
We might not be friends anymore, but I will always be thankful for you helping me get my bearing on campus when I was lost. I will always treasure the innumerable laughs we shared along with the countless memories around this city. And when I pass you on the street, we might not speak, but I’ll always appreciate the time and the lesson learned.