Dear Ex-Best Friend,
I remember the day you called me in tears during your college orientation because you were so sad to have left home, and more importantly, to have left me. I would have never thought that would be our last phone call, almost a year ago now.
Since we started college, we don’t talk like we used to (or at all for that matter). Neither of us are like we used to be. All of the moments in which we grew up together have culminated into our adult lives, which we no longer share with each other.
Maybe it was the waves of new faces on our separate college campuses that blurred mine from your memory. Maybe the stress and excitement of new opportunities reduced me to a useless bore. Whatever the case, leaves crisped, ice crystalized, and life bloomed as our friendship changed alongside the seasons.
As we got lost in the labyrinth of our new lives, some of us noticed more than others. After several failed attempts at resuscitating our friendship, I have finally accepted that the problem is you. It was not caused by a miscommunication or a lack of time; rather, it was your lack of care.
I am deeply hurt not only by you, but also by myself for whatever part I played in losing you. The hardest pill to swallow is that you don’t need me anymore. We inhabit two separate worlds; we are no longer living in the same town, with the same purpose, and with the same group of friends. You have chosen to rely on different people now, some new and some old. Obviously I am a little too old for you.
Despite this, I want you to know that I am grateful for you. Thank you for being as instrumental to my childhood as you were. Through all of our ups and downs, I perfected the essentials to friendship: how to be a shoulder to cry on, how to laugh as loud as I possibly can, and how to be someone’s ride or die. Even in our current state of limbo, I am still learning from you. But this time, I am learning how to let go.
Good luck,
Caroline