To me, one of the hardest, but most important, lessons to learn is that not everyone who enters into your life is meant to stay. At first, this may seem cruel or insane to accept.
You meet all kinds of different people, the ones who make you laugh until you cry, the ones who see you in your most vulnerable moments, and the ones who get you through the heartbreaks and awful days. You want to believe that all of these people are here to stay.
But slowly, it is inevitable that people drift. Messages become less frequent, plans turn into excuses, and one day you come to the realization that someone who used to be a part of your everyday life is now just a memory, which hurts a lot.
In both high school and college, every friendship or relationship feels like it is meant to last forever. You share a room with the same girl for an entire year (but she is the one person who will forever be in your life), late-night study sessions, and coffee-fueled hangouts.
You make all types of memories that feel like they should be permanent. It is easy to believe connections like these are unbreakable. Unfortunately, people grow. Circumstances shift. It might be something as simple as evolving into someone new that drifts you apart.
As much as you want the people you care about to grow with you, sometimes they can’t, which doesn’t classify these friendships as failures, but more lessons in disguise. Truth is, people come into and out of our lives for a reason.
Some are meant to teach you spontaneity, others are meant to teach you patience or boundaries. Some help you discover who you really are. Not all are meant to walk with you forever; you have to learn that it is okay.
The problem with this is that we often attach permanence to people who are really only meant to be temporary. We almost always cling to the idea that since a person meant everything to us, they should always hold that same place. You can love them and appreciate them, but still let them go.
Learning to let people go is something that can teach you to value yourself. When you stop chasing after the people who are not meant to be in your life forever, you create space for the people who genuinely do.
Not everyone is meant to stay, but everyone leaves something behind. Every single person who simply crosses your path adds something to your story. The goal is to be grateful for the time you had with each and every person and to keep moving forward.
Life is about letting go with grace and trusting that the right people will always choose to stay.