Here’s Another Way to Look at the End of a Friendship

It’s probably not what you think

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

I’ve always been the type of person to thrive on my friendships. Not the “I have 1,000 Facebook friends but would recognize 1/4 of them on the street” type of friendship, but the deep and well-nurtured type of friendship that doesn’t come along very often.

I’ve always taken pride in the longevity of some of my friendships, and truly believe good relationships are the best way to invest in yourself and your future. Maybe you’re the same?

For these reasons, the end of a friendship has always hit me hard. Unlike romantic relationships, true friendships are meant to last. They’re meant to grow and prosper and get better over time, not fizzle out suddenly and prematurely.

Like Losing a Limb

For me, the hardest friendships to let go of are the ones where there has been an abundance of shared history. New friendships absolutely have their merit, but there’s a magical, hard-to-replicate quality of an old, been-there-through-everything friendship.

The friend who was there during a bad breakup, the one who you endured your freshman year of college with, the one who held your train as you walked down the aisle. No matter how close you get to a new friend, they weren’t part…